AIM is a first for MIA. Her fifth album, formerly titled Matahdatah, is not wall-to-wall polemic. Last year’s (excellent) single Borders remains an earworm despairing at the refugee crisis, a theme continued on Foreign Friend and Visa. But many of these songs are vignettish, poppy missives from MIA’s own country, “the People’s Republic of Swagistan” as her (very good) Zayn-featuring song – Freedun – has it. Sure, Go Off is satisfyingly pugilistic, but the inventive Bird Song is downright cute, reuniting MIA with her ex, Diplo. If this is her last album (as she has intimated), a true original bows out on a more equable note.
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