Arular

Arular is the debut album by UK artist M.I.A. The album is titled after her father's political code name used during the Tamil independence movements. Originally set for a September 2004 release, the album faced months of delays due to sample issues. Arular was finally released on March 22, 2005 on XL Records in America to universal critical acclaim. Almost a month later, Arular was released in the UK with a new track and a replaced skit.

The album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2005. The album has sold more than 129,000 copies in the US, and many more worldwide to date. It was named one of the best albums of the year by several publications at the end of 2005 (see 2005 in music).

Background, themes and influences

Arular was recorded from mid 2003 to 2004 in London, and was released in March 2005 on XL Recordings (see 2005 in music). She described the use of the Roland MC-505, inspired by the mimimalism of electroclash artist Peaches, giving her a more “hands-on, real and organic approach.” She says it had a “real sense of bravery…putting the emphasis on the artist” explaining “I thought if I started with something as minimal as that, I could work on myself.”

The album is influenced by music Arulpragasam listened to as a child in London which included hip hop, dancehall and punk rock records by Erik B and Rakim, Public Enemy, London Posse, ("the best of British hip hop” who “had a really original flow and fresh beats that made me feel good”) and The Clash, “who were really important for me and for London” as well as other styles including Britpop and electroclash which she was exposed to during her time in film school. Living in West London, "the only place that let me stay there for rent free" she met many musicians that "really sort of define that era of British music that was actually credible." In an interview with Antics TV, she elaborated on the importance of bands from the West London punk scene and their influence, saying “You have The Slits, The Clash, all that sort of Don Letts, in the 70s...there’s still that vibe of it...bands like Bow Wow Wow and all the things Malcolm McLaren was doing...politically they did to England what Public Enemy would have done in America.” She felt “at the time when I was growing up in England, it’s kind of amazing that a band would get that involved in your plight.” In a 2004 interview with Nirali magazine, prior to the album's release she said "Nobody wants to be dancing to political songs. I wanted to see if I could write songs about something important and make it sound like nothing. And it kind of worked." On her lyrical references to revolution and conflicts she lived through, she said in a 2005 interview "That's why I wrote the song "Sunshowers." "You can't separate the world into two parts like that, good and evil. America has successfully tied all these pockets of independence struggles, revolutions and extremists into one big notion of terrorism." M.I.A.’s artwork and lyrics feature social realism and are often observational of politics, sex, war and poverty, as typified by Arular, described as “dealing with urban life in raw, witty, provocative clusters, always fluid and never too rhetorical” sounding like “snatches of overheard conversation.”

Coupled with lyrics about being held ransom while blindfolded in the song "Amazon", she said in a March 2005 CBC interview of other lines in the passage “I was into fingernail art for a second. “I went and shot loads of photos in nail shops around the world. One of them has a sunset with a couple kissing on a palm tree. It’s really elaborate. Beautiful. So I looked at that, and “Amazon” just kind of happened straight away.” The same year, M.I.A. briefly profiled songs on Arular, revealing more background in a session with the Sony Music Connect Store.

Music style

M.I.A. told MTV that her work is “mixed with so many different cultures - hip hop, dancehall, bootleg, jungle, garage, futuristic, underground music.” Her music drew comparisons to her graphic art by one commentator who called it "vivid, gaudy, lo-fi and deceptively candyfloss." M.I.A. "wanted to make it so people could relate to it however they wanted to." Her "multi genre pile up" was described in The Times in 2005 as "running the gamut from hip-hop, electro and ragga to steel-drum music, Puerto Rican reggaeton and Brazilian favella funk — anything as long as it has a beat..." Elements of world music were inspired from soundtracks of Tamil film music she grew up listening to. In the interview Arulpragasam explained "Tamil music is very similar to Indian music except that it’s less trebly, less nasal and a bit warmer. The dance is all beats and feet — that’s where the foot-stamping in flamenco came from. There’s a film industry there and the music is like Indian film music, all over the place, totally nuts. Maybe that’s where I come from." She listened to funk carioca, describing the sound as “so exciting and full of energy.” She recalls, “It’s such a big sound that’s angry but kind of sexy at the same time. It uses Miami Bass as its essence. That seems exciting.” In an interview with Exclaim! in 2005, when asked on the difficulty in categorising her sound, she explained “Influences are crossing over into each other’s puddles. I just accept where I’m at, I accept where the world is at and I accept how we receive and digest information. I get that somebody in Tokyo is on the internet instant messaging, and someone in the favelas is on the internet. Everybody seems to know a little bit about everything and that’s how we process information now. This just reflects that.”

Composition and recording

Initially, Arulpragasam's intentions were to become just a composer/producer. Arulpragasam revealed in an interview that she borrowed a Roland MC-505 from her friend Justine Frischmann and made a six track demo tape in her bedroom in London using it, telling them "Elastica broke up right after that tour and Justine was trying to make music without a band, so she bought a (Roland) 505 (drum machine). I was there one night and Justine was out, so I just started [pressing buttons]. I wrote 'M.I.A.' that night." After making her demos, she recalled "scouting Caribbean girls in clubs, trying to get them to sing [her] songs...But they would say 'We can't do what you're doing.'" She admitted being open to guest vocals on the album at first but in the end she said, "I didn't want to put it in anyone's face. I just quietly got on with it....I didn't wanna convince anyone it was good. I felt it was much better to prove that I could be an individual."

Arulpragasam began every song and skit writing the lyrics, melody and beats on the drum machine and keyboard sequencer. Building on the beats she wrote, M.I.A. said in a 2005 interview with Remix magazine "A 505, you can smash it out. I like turning knobs, pushing buttons and lights flashing. On a computer, it's too sterile. I prefer making music with a bucket and a stick, keeping it as real and organic as possible.” Using a “lawless, trial and error” philosophy gave her the freedom to go where she wanted, before she sought to collaborate with a writer-producer whose music had caught her ear. Arulpragasam further revealed her vision for the album in a 2004 Fused Magazine interview. She described wanting to make the exercise collaborative, seeking a “diverse mixture - dragging people out of their boxes musically.”

Borrowing studio time, she said of her decision to collaborate “I wanted to spend time here, there and everywhere, getting diversity like indie musicians making dancehall on my album.” Composing with Richard X on tracks such as “Hombre” and “Amazon”, she revealed how by building layers of vocals and instruments, they’d make room for any number of additional inputs of sounds. “We’d use my earrings, my mobile, my pen – whatever made a sound, we used it.” Contrastingly, “Galang”, which she began programming/producing on her 505 was worked on with Steve Mackey and Ross Orton (Cavemen), who added a bass line and vocals to give it “a more analog sound” than what was possible with the 505. Working with Diplo on the track “Bucky Done Gun” and the mixtape Piracy Funds Terrorism allowed for exploration of a shared “musical homelessness” between them. The song "Pull Up the People" involved collaborating with A. Brucker (a.k.a. Switch) and co-writing “Galang” with Justine Frischmann, she said “Justine is quite experimental with her themes, so her input was refreshing.” The album was later licensed to Interscope Records in the U.S.

Release

The 2003 white label release of "Galang" and the release of the song and Arulpragasam's next single "Sunshowers" on XL Recordings in 2004 preceded the release of Arular, which was eventually released on XL in March 2005. The album was delayed over several months due to sample issues. However, several M.I.A. songs, such as "Galang", "Sunshowers," and "Fire Fire," as well as a seven-track hard copy promo of Arular, were already circulating widely on the Internet on blogs and websites in 2004. The mash up mixtape of Arular tracks - Piracy Funds Terrorism - was also made available in December 2004. Arular's content and themes, artwork and lyrics referencing her past sparked commentary and noted Internet debates on the rights and wrongs of the Tamil Tigers, increasing anticipation for her debut album. Despite uploading her songs and artwork onto her official website and Myspace account from early through mid 2004, M.I.A. admitted in an interview published in late 2005 that she had little comprehension of her prior popularity with music bloggers. Asked on how she maintained contact with her Internet fan base initially, Arulpragasam explained, "I didn’t even have a computer. But now everything’s happening to me and I can afford one. I was really ignorant to the whole thing...The Internet people loved the fact that I was into so much different shit...People were like ... 'It wasn’t hip hop, it wasn’t dancehall, and it wasn’t indie music. It’s great it’s not marketed. It’s great she fucks up and puts her music out before she releases it and people are downloading it.'" The original US release on XL omits the track "U.R.A.Q.T", which features Quincy Jones' theme song from Sanford and Son. The US XL–Vinyl issue and the later reissue on Interscope Records return "U.R.A.Q.T" to the track listing. She performed several songs from the album on her 2005 Arular tour supporting the release at music festivals and other venues worldwide.

Reception

Arular was released to widespread critical acclaim, scoring 88 on Metacritic.Spin appreciated its fusion of "hip hop's cockiness with dancehall's shimmy and the cheap and noisy aesthetics of punk" whilst noting that Arular "will likely be the best political album this year. Andy Webb writing for Yahoo! Music agreed, stating "What Hounslow-born Maya Arulpragasam achieves with Arular is closer to a punk ideal of The Slits – almost professionally amateurish, her scattergun approach effortlessly appropriates the music of various different cultures and filters them through the most elementary equipment. Dancehall is the primary influence, but also one of many seismic collisions with several other genres ... with the results of such displacement and politicisation writ large all over" the album. In his review for Stylus Magazine Josh Timmermann stated of Arular "It's a swaggering, spitting, utterly contemporary album from politically dissident M.I.A ... It's special. We've not heard its like before." Rolling Stone found Arular "Weird, playful, unclassifiable, sexy, brilliantly addictive. Billboard said "All the elements are deftly held together by the MC/songstress' ability to make each track her own." Sasha Frere-Jones, writing in The New Yorker, noted that "what makes this genuine world music, aside from the references, is the weaving of the political into the fabric of what are still, basically, dance tunes. Any division of life into personal and political halves is absent."

It eventually became, in December 2005, the second most featured album in music critics’ Year-End Top 10 lists for 2005, reaching high positions of their lists in several publications worldwide. It was named number 1 album of the year in 2005 by publications including Blender, Stylus, Musikbyrån, Rock de Lux, Eye Weekly and music website I Love Music. Amazon.com named it their number 2 album of the year while Pitchfork Media named Arular the number 4 best album of 2005. It placed number two on The Village Voice's 33rd annual Pazz & Jop poll for the Best Album of 2005. Among its all-time accolades, Arular was positioned 6th on GQ Magazine’s list of the "100 Coolest Albums Ever Released and was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Several artists have cited Arular as an influence in their work. Hip hop musicians Nas and Chuck D described her sound as "the future." Thom Yorke of alternative rock band Radiohead cited M.I.A.'s "complete block and chop repeat, chop repeat, chop, not finished" method to music making on Arular as an influence on the band's subsequent work, which reminded him "of that thing of just picking up a guitar and the first three chords you write and being like, yep, that's good. Stop. End" and "not agonizing over the hi-hat sound which seems to happen with programming and electronica a lot of the time. You can feel the pain going on."

Singles

The first single, "Galang", was originally released on M.I.A.'s former label, Showbiz Records, in late 2003 and featured instrumental and a cappella versions of the title track. It was later re-released on Arulpragasam's current label, XL Recordings, on November 1, 2004 and included remixes by Cavemen and South Rakkas. The song was re-released again in 2005, under the title "Galang '05," and included a remix done by Serj Tankian. The music video was directed by Ruben Fleischer. The single was re-issued on iTunes again in 2006 with Serj Tankian's remix.

The second single, "Sunshowers", was M.I.A.'s first release on XL Recordings. It was released as a single on July 5, 2004. It contained the b-side "Fire, Fire", as well as instrumental and a cappella versions of the title track. The music video was directed by Rajesh Touchriver. The third single, "Bucky Done Gun" was released on July 11, 2005. It contained remixes by D'Explicit, DJ Marlboro, ¥£$ Productions and DaVinChe, as well as instrumental and a cappella versions of the title track. The music video was directed by Anthony Mandler.

By November 2004, many M.I.A. tracks and remixes of them were available for download on the Internet, and exchanged through file-sharing, including the released singles "Galang" and "Sunshowers" destined for appearances on Arular. In early 2005, after the release of Arular, an extensive collection of fan-made remixes of Arulpragasam's work was uploaded, expanded and made availaible as an online mixtape on XL recording's official website, titled Online Piracy Funds Terrorism. The song "U.R.A.Q.T." was also planned for a single release in September 2005. According to a press release by XL in July 2005, the single was to feature remixes of the song by Roll Deep, Plasticman and Hot Chip as well as a reggaeton mix by La Fabrica. It was released as a UK promo, and these mixes are available online. Many Arular tracks were also released as limited edition vinyl singles, although the release dates and track listing details are hazy at best. These include "Hombre", "Pull Up the People", "Bucky Done Gun" and "10 $".

Song usage in other media

• The song "Fire Fire" was used in an episode from season 3 on The O.C..
• The songs "10 Dollar" and "Galang" were used in episodes on the TV show Entourage in season 2.
• The song "Galang" was featured in an ad for the Honda civic.
• The song "Bucky Done Gun" was featured in the soundtrack of the videogame NBA Live 06, renamed as "Bucky Done."
• The song "Fire Fire" was featured in the soundtrack of the video game Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition.
• The song "10 Dollar" was featured in the soundtrack of the film War.

Track listing

XL U.S. release

1. "Banana Skit" (Maya Arulpragasam) – 0:36
2. "Pull Up the People" (M. Arulpragasam, A. Brucker, Paschal Byrne) – 3:45
3. "Bucky Done Gun" (M. Arulpragasam, Carol Conners, Bill Conti, Wesley Pentz, Ayn Robbins) – 3:46
4. "Fire Fire" (M. Arulpragasam, Anthony Whiting) – 3:28
5. "Freedom Skit" (M. Arulpragasam) – 0:42
6. "Amazon" (M. Arulpragasam, Richard X) – 4:16
7. "Bingo" (M. Arulpragasam, Whiting) – 3:12
8. "Hombre" (M. Arulpragasam, Dwayne Wilson) – 4:02
9. "One for the Head Skit" (M. Arulpragasam) – 0:29
10. "10 Dollar" (M. Arulpragasam, Richard X) – 4:03
11. "Sunshowers" (M. Arulpragasam, Stony Browder Jr., August Darnell, Steve Mackey and Ross Orton) – 3:16
12. "Galang" (M. Arulpragasam, Justine Frischmann, Mackey, Orton) – 3:35
13. "M.I.A." (M. Arulpragasam, Frischmann, Sugu Arulpragasam) – 3:27 ¹

UK / International / Interscope U.S. release

1. "Banana Skit" (M. Arulpragasam) – 0:36
2. "Pull Up the People" (M. Arulpragasam, Brucker, Byrne) – 3:45
3. "Bucky Done Gun" (M. Arulpragasam, Conners, Conti, Pentz, Robbins) – 3:47
• Samples: "Gonna Fly Now" by Bill Conti, inspired by "Injeção" by Deize Tigrona
4. "Sunshowers" (M. Arulpragasam, Browder Jr., Darnell, Mackey, Orton) – 3:15
• Samples: Chorus of "Sunshower" by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band
5. "Fire Fire" (M. Arulpragasam, Whiting) – 3:28
6. "Dash the Curry Skit" (M. Arulpragasam) – 0:40
7. "Amazon" (M. Arulpragasam, Richard X) – 4:16
8. "Bingo" (M. Arulpragasam, Whiting) – 3:12
9. "Hombre" (M. Arulpragasam, Wilson) – 4:02
10. "One for the Head Skit" (M. Arulpragasam) – 0:29
11. "10 Dollar" (M. Arulpragasam, Richard X) – 4:01
12. "U.R.A.Q.T" (M. Arulpragasam, Quincy Jones) – 2:56 ²
• Samples: "The Streetbeater (Theme from Sanford & Son)" by Quincy Jones
13. "Galang" (M. Arulpragasam, Frischmann, Mackey, Orton) – 3:35
14. "M.I.A." (M. Arulpragasam, Frischmann, S. Arulpragasam) – 3:27 ¹

¹The last track, "M.I.A.", is a "hidden" track without its own index point. It plays after "Galang", after a brief silence.
²Alternate unsampled version is listed as Track 14 on the advance XL US Release with a length of 3:26

Outtakes

• A few tracks were written and recorded for Arular but did not make the final cut, leaked onto the internet prior to the album's release, or were made available later to buy digitally through various online music stores. The tracks "Macho" (formerly known to fans as "Untitled"), "U.R.A.Q.T" and "You're Good" were on a rare, seven-track hard-copy promo of Arular which had been "floating around" More information on the promo and its full track listing has not been revealed, however after Piracy Funds Terrorism was released to the general public, "U.R.A.Q.T" was reworked and placed on the UK/International issue of Arular.
• The tracks "Do Ya", "Lady Killa" and a longer, reworked version of "You're Good" were made available for download on various online music stores. "You're Good" was added as a bonus track to the iTunes Music Store's release of Arular, "Do Ya" to Karma Download's release and "Lady Killa" to the OD2 Network's release.
• The track "M.I.A." on the Arular release is the remixed and finalized version of "Pop" from Piracy Funds Terrorism, the first song Arulpragasam composed.

Personnel

• Maya Arulpragasam - main performer, artwork
• A. Brucker - producer on "Pull Up the People", final mix and additional production on "Bucky Done Gun" and "U.R.A.Q.T"
• Paschal Byrne - producer on "Pull Up the People", final mix and additional production on "Bucky Done Gun" and "U.R.A.Q.T"
• Diplo - producer on "Bucky Done Gun", "U.R.A.Q.T" and "M.I.A."
• KW Griff - producer on "U.R.A.Q.T"
• Pete Hofmann - engineer and mixing on "Amazon" and "10 Dollar"
• Steve Loveridge - artwork design
• Steve Mackey - producer on "Sunshowers" and "Galang"
• Ross Orton - producer on "Sunshowers" and "Galang"
• Nesreen Shah - chorus vocals on "Sunshowers"
• Anthony Whiting - producer on "Fire Fire" and "Bingo"
• Dwayne "Willy" Wilson III - producer on "Hombre"
• Wizard - programming, mixing and additional production on "Bucky Done Gun"
• Richard X - producer on "Amazon" and "10 Dollar"

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United States	March 22, 2005	XL	LP	XLLP 186 US
United Kingdom	April 18, 2005		CD	XLCD 186
			LP	XLLP 186
World	April 25, 2005
United States	May 17, 2005	Interscope	LP	B0004844-01
			CD	B0004844-02

Charts

Chart (2005)	Peak position
Norwegian Albums Chart	20
Swedish Albums Chart	47
Japanese Albums Chart	78
UK Indie Albums Chart	9
UK Albums Chart	98
U.S. Billboard 200	190
U.S. Billboard Top Electronic Albums	3
U.S. Billboard Top Heatseekers	14
U.S. Billboard Top Independent Albums	16

References

External links

• M.I.A. official website