"M.I.A.'s coming back with power, power!"

...and she wasn't kidding when I quote this line from her opening track Bamboo Banger. Maya Arulpragasam a.k.a. M.I.A. avoids the sophomore slump to every music critic's delight with her new album Kala (named after her mother). An album fused with third-world beats, rhythms, and percussions from the Caribbean, Africa, India, and Australia, M.I.A. continues express her political views through electro-dance tracks that spark your mind and your feet on the dancefloor. The real credit for this albums extraordinary sound is the U.S. government, who denied M.I.A. a work visa to make the album with hip hop producer Timbaland. M.I.A. decided to make the album with English producer Switch and fellow producer/friend Diplo instead, and travel to England, Jamaica, and Australia to record the album there. And the result is a masterpiece of songs like Bird Flu, Boyz, Jimmy, $20, Down Water, and Paper Planes. This album definitely deserves a Grammy nomination next year.