World Love Jams

M.I.A and Talib Kweli

by J. Edward Keyes

The best record of 2007 opens with African children running alongside a Humvee, banging on the doors to get the attention of the people inside. It's the perfect tone-setting for M.I.A.'s stunning sophomore effort, a record that's even more stubborn and more abstract than its predecessor. It's all static and sound collages, the ideal reflection of a world so scrambled and chaotic that Bollywood soundtracks and aboriginal hip-hop and snippets of Pixies lyrics all bleed into a single central consciousness. On the Internet, these formerly far-flung universes are separated by a single click — why should pop records be any different? In both tone and sound the record Kala most closely resembles is Fear of a Black Planet, conjuring a world run by corrupt authorities, where injustice is a matter of course and where the panicky onslaught of information never slows, never subsides. They stand, separated by 17 years, like a set of parentheses, handily containing everything that came between.

M.I.A. Kala (XL/Interscope)

Talib Kweli Ear Drum (Blacksmith/Warner Bros.)

In the last days of the sitcom Arrested Development, cast member Will Arnett theorized that the show's failure was due to the fact that at a certain point, it started to seem like homework. So many People in Authority had gone to such great lengths to extol its virtues that the general public naturally assumed it wasn't any fun. At this point in his career, Talib Kweli is like homework. No matter how many Kanye songs he guests on or how many backhanded compliments he gets from Jay-Z, he's always going to be perceived as a wordy, wary funcrusher, the bouncer at ladies night, the asparagus of hip-hop. Which naturally limits the number of people who are going to hear Ear Drum, his most consistent, inspired and, yes, fun record in years. At 20 tracks it's way too long, but it's hard to determine what to cut. "Hostile Gospel" swells and rolls on a booming choir sample; "Soon the New Day" is marvelously patient and relaxed. What's distressing is this idea that craft and conscience are somehow mutually exclusive. If Ear Drum had come out 14 years ago, it would sit comfortably beside such forward-thinking masterpieces as Midnight Marauders or The Sun Rises in the East. Now, though, it's thoroughly outside the paradigm, its crackling wordplay and warm soul production artifacts instead of current tropes. Kweli has bested his contemporaries without breaking a sweat. The last thing he needs is another critic begging people to listen.

(j_keyes@citypaper.net)