MATANGI (VINYL)

Names are important to Maya Arulpragasam. She named her first two albums after her father and mother, /\/\/\Y/\ after herself, and Matangi after an emerald-green Tantric goddess as well as a riff on her birth name, Mathangi. Picking up where /\/\/\Y/\'s challenging electronics and distrust of the information age left off, M.I.A.'s fourth album is top-loaded with some of its most aggressive tracks, including the title track's global litany. She makes listeners wait for her still-formidable skills with hooks and melodies, displaying them most stunningly on "Bad Girls," a sinewy, menacing track whose origins date back to 2007 sessions with Danja. Throughout the album, Arulpragasam proves she's as adept as ever at blending different sounds and cultures into a mix that is unmistakably hers, alluding to Shampoo's bratty Brit-pop single "Trouble" at one moment and proclaiming herself the female Slick Rick at another. Indeed, the songs inspired by rap and R&B are among the highlights, such as her karmic questioning of Drake's ubiquitous motto on "Y.A.L.A." or the sultry, surprisingly straightforward ballad "Know It Ain't Right." "Exodus," a collaboration with the Weeknd, finds a mostly successful middle ground between her outbursts and his chilly R&B dirges. Other standouts include the fizzy, hypnotic "Lights" and "Boom Skit," which harks back to Arular's brazen exuberance. ~ Heather Phares