Y.A.L.A.
M.I.A. drops Y.A.L.A.
and you want to care. She’s done the work—”Paper Planes,” Bad Girls,
all that carried real weight. But this one’s too experimental in the way that doesn’t connect. It’s riding the Y.O.L.O. trend like everyone else, trying to make something stick, and it just doesn’t.
After everything that fell apart with her last album and the Madonna nonsense, you’d hoped for something that actually landed. This isn’t it. It’s good enough for a party, good enough to mention in passing, but nothing more.
She’s capable of better, though. I still think she’ll make something worth listening to again. But not this.