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Arular
by M.i.a.
ALBUM RANKINGS:
Ratings and rankings are based on all available critic reviews and awards.
Overall Rating:
3.5380
Avg. Critic Score:
3.3948
Arular Rank 3 Reviews
Critic Review Summary
Click on the numbers to the right of the graph to see reviews of that rating. 
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PitchforkWith all the column inches and message board posts arguing about whether M.I.A. is an opportunist or a clever contextualist, genuine or a fraud, full of good intentions or no specific intentions at all, the closest thing to a truism about Arular is that ...more
cokemachineglowArular beats out most everything I’ve heard this year in terms of creativity, energy, dance-ability and fun. ...more
Pitch Fork MediaArular was first expected to be released in late 2004, but instead M.I.A. gave half of its vocals away to Diplo's Piracy Funds Backlash mixtape, which married her London Sri Lankan patois to music from New York, Rio, and Kingston. The ...more
SplendidAt first listen, it's thrilling, but not quite the statement we were made to believe would shift the world's axis by its very existence. The best thing to do is clear your mind of hype and expectations, and listen to this record -- this fun, addictive, ...more
Dusted MagazineWhat's more remarkable than her fascinating biography is her bold music. Like her life story, there's hardly anything like it. ...more
Critic Reviews continued...
Village VoiceNot for a moment does the violence seem vindictive, sadistic, or pleasurable. It's a fact of life to be triumphed over, with beats and tunelets stolen or remembered or willed into existence. ...more
BillboardAll the elements are deftly held together by the MC/songstress' ability to make each track her own. ...more
No RipcordWhat makes M.I.A. so good is her simplicity. Not quite electro-clash, not quite hip-hop, not quite grime, she's a world onto herself with little more than a groovebox and her voice to sustain her. ...more
PlaylouderWhen 'Arular' works - a good three-quarters of the time - it's unmissable. ...more
The GuardianShrapnel-sharp dance music that demands to be heard. ...more
JunkmediaArular is what The Coup’s second record set out to be but wasn’t: Party Music, both for the warehouse hedonists and the basement dissidents. ...more
The Onion (A.V. Club)As an MC, M.I.A. sounds brash and sassy, a party-starter first and a polemicist second. ...more
Rolling StoneYou've never heard anything like M.I.A. -- the sound of jump-rope rhymes in a war zone. She blew out of the London electro underground last year with her indie debut single, "Galang." M.I.A. chants the hook "London calling/Speak the slang now" ...more
Slant MagazineAfter hearing just a few seconds of M.I.A.'s "Sunshowers" during a show at last fall's Olympus Fashion Week, I turned to Slant's fashion columnist Alexa Camp and asked, "What the fuckisthis?" It was quite unlike anything we'd heard before, a spare ...more
PlaylouderSometimes you hear an album so good you want to tell everyone about it, but you don't know what to say. How do you explain the rush, the immediacy, the unique sound that transfixes you from the first play? Well thankfully, a year after the first ...more
The Onion A.V. ClubTroubling radical chic or not, such sentiments blow idly through the humid, sticky breeze of Arular, an album whose mind for agitation answers most directly to infectious beats and boasts. ...more
RollingStoneM.I.A.s long-awaited full-length debut, Arular, is every bit as stunning as "Galang": weird, playful, unclassifiable, sexy, brilliantly addictive. ...more
ShakingThrough.netArular is an impressive first outing, even if it does suffer from repetitive drill syndrome... and too often favors a smart hook over offering anything politically relevant to say. ...more
E! OnlineLike the Streets or Dizzee Rascal, Arulpragasam's beats are minimal, but tracks such as "Pull Up the People" make use of every ounce of groove as tight, crisp synth lines backing her catchy raga delivery. ...more
Paste MagazineIt's not the mindblowing masterpiece the critics are so dizzily carping about, but as a milepost of the current state of world electronica it remains strong throughout. ...more
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