Albums I Enjoyed in 2007 — 10

10. MIA Kala Interscope Hussel (feat Afrikan Boy)

Now I’m sittin’ down chillin’ on gunpowder: well, need I say more? Indian (Sri Lankan) and English fusion, filtered through a gangster lens — suffice it to say that I tolerate a lot more from MIA than I would from her male counterparts, and I’m not sure why. I tend to despise bravado-soaked lyrics like those in … well, every MIA song. Sometimes it gets grating and sometimes she slows down to her detriment — “20 Dollar” drags its knuckles like a tired 500 pound gorilla.

But even my husband, who thinks that good music stopped when John Bonham died, requested more MIA when he heard it playing on the radio. There’s something about her brashness and her beats that make irresistible listening. It’s a crazy melange of sound, from the gunshot/cash register sound effects in “Paper Planes” to the digeridoo that the Wilcannia Mob uses in “Mango Pickle Down River.” Timbaland contributes to “Come Around,” my personal favorite song, and Afrikan Boy contributes a continental flavor to “Hussel”: hussel hussel hussel, grind grind grind / why does everyone got hussel on their mind?

She’s in our faces and she makes whatever music she likes, and she loves making it and so we love it, down to the crummy CD covers. I’ve been hearing talk that she’s leaving the music biz, and if she does, I’d be sad. It would leave a huge hole in an industry where too many acts really do have hussel on their minds.