Song of the Day: MIA - It Takes A Muscle

Since I haven't posted in a while (the busy summer schedule dragged me away!) I'm going to post a second song of the day, one that's had my attention most of this season.

MIA's newest release Maya has divided critics, some hailing her third album as a continuation of the exciting eclecticism of her first two albums (with Drowned In Sound describing it as "bold, inventive and occasionally thrilling") and others finding the album a simply baffling, alienating listen (or as Pitchfork put it: "it's as if everything that was great about M.I.A. has been stripped from this music, leaving behind only the most alienating aspects of her art and public persona.")

I would tend toward the former opinion: Maya is a challenging album, and all the better for it. At times the music sounds like an auditory ambush, instruments careening from ear to ear and occasionally descending into cacophany. Primarily the mood is that of digital-age paranoia and terror, but there are light moments scattered throughout. One of these is "It Takes A Muscle," a cover of Dutch band Spectral Display's synth-pop original. Bathed in reggae rhythms and defined by a sugar-sweet melody, MIA's vocals hover over the instrumentation, distant yet completely in keeping with the song's composition. Lyrics like "you've got to love one another, that's what the good man says" sound resplendant in MIA's cool, echoed tones, making this the perfect summer song, especially when placed in the context of the awesome, jarring surroundings of Maya.