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Whereas MIA's Mercury Nominated debut 'Arular 'was heavily based on Brazilian Baile Funk and a product of her split Sri Lankan and London roots, 'Kala' extends in scope to leave few corners of the world untouched. Recording sessions in Trinidad, Australia, Japan and the US among other locations gives Kala the air of a musical travelogue, pilfering and deftly weaving together elements from across the globe.
Opener 'Bamboo Banga' features a lyrical lift from Jonathan Richman's 'Roadrunner', laconically spread across a relatively stripped-back arrangement, before the album explodes into life with the whoops and tribal drums of the Bernard-baiting 'BirdFlu'. First proper single 'Jimmy' demonstrates MIA's gleeful disregard for genre boundaries, somehow hammering Bollywood strings and a Eurodisco beat into an unlikely dovetail. MIA's talent as a producer shines through in her ear for a fitting collaboration: the appearance of Afrikan Boy on Hussel is a welcome change of narrator, and the child-like vocals of The Wilcannia Mob perfectly accompany the didgeridoo groove of 'Mango Pickle Down River'.
'The Turn' is a detour into Baltimore club territory, before the upbeat and unrelenting 'XR2' picks up the mood and the BPM count. Album highlight 'Paper Planes', meanwhile, punctuates a dreamy laid-back track with the obligatory hip-hop gunshots: in this context coming across as poignant rather than macho posturing. True, her schtick about being the voice of the third world may be self-lionising of Bonoesque proportions and her politics may be confused, but to cover weighty topics in an engaging and non-preachy way is a feat indeed. And to do so in the course of an album which is both musically inventive and highly listenable is probably a first.
Naturally, not every idea works: the nods to the Pixies (on '$20') and The Clash ('Paper Planes') seem clunky and unnecessary, her delivery in the style of a moody teenager grates over the course of twelve tracks, and Timbaland's late appearance on 'Come Around' is best skirted over. But in an age in which mediocrity and safety rule the musical roost, in which a song about an Umbrella lords it over the Top 10 and Kate Nash's treatises on having a cup of tea and watching Channel 5 send the masses rushing to their nearest Tesco, it's not just a privilege to have M.I.A. around: it's a necessity.
