| | Full Review | Ratings (367) |
Give your Rating |
| 2.0 poor | ErgoNomNoms | July 9th 10 |
A heavily sedated version of the once-fierce rapper, who feels lost without the help of a decent production team.
3 Bumps | Bump |
| 5.0 classic | lblelnl | July 21st 10 |
I didn't "love" Arular; I adored Kala, but I'm obsessed with Maya. In my opinion, this is M.I.A. in her most potent form - stripped of the multicultural influences that "softened" the music of her two previous albums. In Maya, M.I.A. is raw and powerful; her exotic charm and airy beats seen in Kala are replaced by a grungier, more dystopic, seemingly more condensed tone in Maya, where the air is filled with the sounds of ear-splitting drills and conspiracy theories run wild. Anyone expecting another LP of ethnic beat potpourri are going to get, well, culture shock, more or less. Although her style is essentially still the same, this drastic excision of her multicultural undertones seems to be a deliberate attempt to both scare off mainstream "Paper Plane"-ers and to say "Hey, I don't need beats from India or influence from the Caribbean - my music is MY music." However, it may have worked too well, as I have personally seen this album scare off quite a few ardent fans from the Arular days.
All in all, this is a great album, if not one of the best albums of the year. It's harder, rougher, and more condensed than Arular or Kala. Maybe that's why she named it after herself - it's something like an autobiography or self portrait.
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 1.5 very poor | butcherboy | July 31st 17 |
after belated listening, this falls into the category of artists who, behind scores of charisma and smart marketing, hide an utter inability to actually write anything.. little music to find here, aside from the blips and bloops of a laptop having diarrhea
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 2.0 poor | viewerslikeyou | July 21st 10 |
This album is the definition of trying too hard. Hipster gold, baby.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 0.0 | TonyCocaCola | July 18th 10 |
MIA can do better. Sure her new album is abrasive and smart, but not much else. I have to agree with TIME magazine when they said that MIA was so much better and original when she was a globe-trotting pop mistress that "made bomb-throwing sound fun".
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 2.0 poor | Sputniks #1 Cacti Hunter | July 15th 10 |
Maya is M.I.A.'s first major flop. I don't know if it's the beyond giberish lyrics (this time it's not a good thing), her lazy auto tuned vocals (your not lil wayne aight), or the failed production on the album which sounds like terribly spliced loops of robots dieing, but this album fell face first from the high expectations I had. Maybe if she focused more on her music rather than getting back at a hating New York times writer by posting her phone number on Twitter this album wouldn't have been this bad... Who knows
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 0.0 | chambered89 | July 14th 10 |
I'm usually not a fan of music that sounds like it's being fed through a futuristic machine, but I'll let M.I.A.'s latest effort pass; a cacophonic summer freak out jam session. Let's party.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | LoveHugsNHipHopSoul | July 3rd 10 |
imo, it's a fantastically produced and written album. I just got into M.I.A. a little while back, but not the way that most others did I guess which would be through Paper Planes. I've listened to all of her official albums so far and this takes the cake for me, trumping "Kala" *and* "Arular" in my opinion. Lots of artists are trying to say that there really isn't anything to talk about other than happiness, but M.I.A.'s new album along with the new Nas and Damian Marley album have proved them wrong. I don't mean to be a pessimist, but bring real world issues to our attention is very important to me, especially ones that are outside of America (I live here), and even though I read books and newspapers, I love to hear it through the voice of the people. M.I.A. did exactly what she said she wanted to do, and she did it right, because I've learned and it all managed to make me dance as well. I'm slowly becoming a big fan of this woman.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.5 superb | JuriHan | September 27th 23 |
M.I.A.'s most punky, abrasive and least accessible album, for sure. This is one of those albums where she was very unfortunately too ahead of the curve, and perception on the album suffered due to that. Obvious comparison would be to call this her Yeezus, but i would personally say this is way-more groundbreaking than that. Has the flow of a like, Black Flag album and the constant ear-beating of one too. You could get lost in the abrasiveness, but a deeper look into the production and formatting prove that there's a lot more to it (similar to Yeezus). The samples, the instruments and the vocals are all eclectic as hell and probably the most finite amalgamation of what represents M.I.A. to exist. Just as good as VICKI LEEKx and serves as a foil to that project being a more fine-tuned version of that chaos (or I guess that being a more chaotic version of what's here.).
Bump |
| 3.0 good | Erwann S. STAFF | February 21st 22 |
Tell me you were released in 2010 without telling me you were released in 2010. Shame that this already sounds outdated, from the electropop-slash-industrial vibe to those fucking YouTube bars on the cover. On the other hand, this basically feels like a mixtape of deconstructed club and PC Music , but from 2010. Such an avant-garde result is to be lauded, I just feel like the albums that iterated on this sound bettered it - no fucking wonder when Diplo produced several tracks off this.
Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | AlexTM510 | July 21st 10 |
It'll take a few listens and some open-mindness to take on the clusterf*ck known as MAYA by M.I.A. And if you do you'll be engulfed in her "digital ruckus" for forty-two minutes and you will love (or almost love) every minute of it.
Bump |
| 0.0 | | July 14th 10 |
ALL I WANNA DO IS *SHOT*SHOT*SHOT*SHOT* AND UH TAKE YOUR MON-EY
Bump |
| 5.0 classic | STOP SHOUTING! | July 10th 10 |
M.I.A. ditches the multi-culturalism to go all electronic and industrial on us, reflecting the electronic internet age we live in. She's still super good.
Bump |
| 1.5 very poor | TheAlmightyBungler | July 9th 10 |
Everything that Major Lazer and M.I.A's previous works got right with their whole pop/hip-
hop infused dancehall/club/electrowhatever, M.I.A. got wrong with MAYA. The beats are
annoying, and M.I.A's once authentic and distinguishable rap has been reduced to a flowless
annunciated talk, droning on about lyrics that are complete rubbish. This is not the girl we
know and love from Arular.
Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | msan | October 5th 23 |
| 2.5 average | TanMan | February 9th 23 |
| 2.5 average | Timmy | January 11th 23 |
| 3.0 good | MvdW | December 16th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | JackIvy | April 19th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | alamo | January 26th 22 |
| 2.5 average | Roidv | January 16th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | EyeSock | January 15th 22 |
| 5.0 classic | Pvzuzu | January 13th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | Xenoflux | December 17th 20 |
| 2.0 poor | hel9000 | September 28th 20 |
| 3.0 good | Henry | September 17th 20 |
| 5.0 classic | kb3984 | August 3rd 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Skoop | May 7th 19 |
| 2.5 average | bbgames | October 6th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | P0laris | September 26th 18 |
| 2.5 average | Spluger | September 13th 18 |
| 4.5 superb | ian b. | July 7th 18 |
| 3.5 great | Jadiel | June 20th 18 |
| 4.5 superb | tyler | June 20th 17 |
| 3.0 good | Jade | June 19th 17 |
| 2.5 average | Nights | November 22nd 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Brandon | October 22nd 16 |
| 3.0 good | Lanas | July 23rd 16 |
| 4.5 superb | Tom R. CONTRIBUTOR | April 28th 16 |
| 3.0 good | mzeet | December 14th 15 |
| 3.0 good | iveau | August 26th 15 |
| 3.0 good | mc83 | December 4th 14 |
| 4.5 superb | Vader | November 2nd 14 |
| 3.0 good | vineh | October 18th 14 |
| 3.0 good | Curse. | August 3rd 14 |
| 4.0 excellent | kaki | June 12th 14 |
| 2.0 poor | krka | March 5th 14 |
| 3.0 good | Matski | November 5th 13 |
| 3.5 great | 00mee | October 28th 13 |
| 4.0 excellent | bkeating | September 28th 13 |
| 2.5 average | Pndi | August 16th 13 |
| 2.0 poor | Viales | April 11th 13 |
| 3.5 great | dogteal | February 23rd 13 |
| 4.0 excellent | Shimana | December 19th 12 |
| 3.5 great | AdamE | November 8th 12 |
| 1.5 very poor | BrianE | June 13th 12 |
| 3.5 great | Filling | February 22nd 12 |
| 3.5 great | Tupik | February 15th 12 |
| 2.0 poor | iSkane | February 1st 12 |
| 4.0 excellent | hamid95 | October 23rd 11 |
| 2.5 average | T0rr35 | August 15th 11 |
| 3.5 great | perlox | June 28th 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | Drifts | June 16th 11 |
| 3.5 great | -1up!- | June 14th 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | Teto | June 4th 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | NoFro | June 1st 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | Sleaper | April 19th 11 |
| 5.0 classic | dariua | February 5th 11 |
| 3.0 good | Dionni | February 2nd 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | mogieloc | December 31st 10 |
| 3.5 great | cubbzor | December 27th 10 |
| 3.5 great | rymo | December 7th 10 |
| 3.5 great | Wael | November 18th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | NLY | November 15th 10 |
| 1.5 very poor | mikhau20 | November 13th 10 |
| 3.5 great | Drone | October 9th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | theoedd | October 1st 10 |
| 3.5 great | aleoh1 | September 17th 10 |
| 2.5 average | 108icka | September 13th 10 |
| 3.0 good | JWT155 | September 12th 10 |
| 2.5 average | ShyGuy | August 17th 10 |
| 4.5 superb | Tondog | July 30th 10 |
| 2.5 average | Donkey | July 19th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | Jin | July 18th 10 |
| 1.5 very poor | mvdu | July 15th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | Drazzel | July 15th 10 |
| 3.8 excellent | greg84 EMERITUS | July 14th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | IAJP | July 14th 10 |
| 3.5 great | kojpl | July 14th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | Smevin | July 11th 10 |
| 4.5 superb | BenX02 | July 9th 10 |
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