M.I.A. Brought The Noise With ‘Bring The Noize’

It’s nice when songs do what they say they’re going to do (future hyper-specific iTunes genre: “Literal Pop”?). Black Flag’s “Life of Pain” sounds tortured, for instance, while Jay-Z proves his gangster self-worth on “Justify My Thug.” On her new single, “Bring the Noize,” M.I.A. does exactly that: her voice glitches and stutters, loudly, over a banging, clattering beat that one might call “noise.” Also, there’s a reference to “Me and Bobby McGee,” and now I can’t stop thinking about what a collaboration with M.I.A and Janis Joplin would sound like. Definitely not “too positive.”

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