A review of......M.I.A.

I know where the root of musical genius comes from. It's not there from birth and you can't teach it, no it comes from brightly coloured leggings. Every artist I have passionately loved over the last few years has proudly sported a pair. Santogold, Love fox from CSS and everybody in the 80's (you can't beat a good bit of 80's fun), hell I bet tights/leggings were everywhere in Mozart's day. Maybe Thom York and Morrisey like to ware them as thermals when the weather get chilly...who knows! It's a good theory and I am sticking by it and the person who best proves it at the moment is the shiny legged M.I.A.
You know how good music must be when one of the first things people are discussing when cumming out of a movie is the soundtrack, especially when that sound track is largely by one artist and extra especially when that movie is multi Oscar/BAFTA award winning in it's own right. There is a lot that is good about Slumdog Millionaire but M.I.A's soundtrack makes those moments great. Her laid back rhythmic beats compliment the movies montage moments perfectly and turns what could have been down beat earnest moments of the film into colourful spirited memories, which is what they were- Slumdog was never supposed to be a feature length Comic Relief video, it is a life story and the sound track adds that life and colour. Imagine the train scene without paper planes- it's a completely different scene.

At the same time it isn't an over the top fun track, it never lightens the mood of the kid's situation to much but you could just as much imagine stoner Americans chilling out to it as friends having fun on a train in India.This is the very reason Pineapple Express also benefited from the brilliance of paper planes, Pineapple Express's trailer was about five times better than the actual movie just because the cool atmosphere magicked up that one track.

Hollywood only just seams to have discovered M.I.A. and she seems to be everywhere at the moment-well good I say! She seems to be concentrating on fashion lines at the moment but I hope Hollywood never gets tired of her music, I know I haven't. Maybe one of the best things to love about MIA is how easily her songs can be mashed with other tracks. I know it's sacrilege- but it's funny sacrilege. If you check out the link to Life the Universe and Anything's youtube account you will find many of them there. My absolute favourite has to be the sublime but ridiculous Jimmymore. You MUST listen now!