MIA is having "[one] last stab" at releasing an album with Interscope. With a release date pencilled in for this autumn and a new single out this week, the artist revealed that her label still hasn't approved her long-overdue fourth LP.
"I've given up at this point," MIA told Radio 1's Zane Lowe. "I keep finishing the record, handing it in, finishing the record, handing it in … I was literally just gonna start making records and putting them out from the bedroom straight on the internet. This is my last stab [at a traditional release]."
Matangi, the followup to 2010's Maya, was originally expected in December. Instead, MIA admitted that she had been arguing with Interscope, "having a bit of an issue" about the tone of the album. "I've been told it's 'too positive'," she explained to Australia's Gold Coast Bulletin. "They're like, 'You need to, like, darken it up a bit'."
It's not as if MIA has gone bubblegum. Bring the Noize, released on Monday, is a frantic, Public Enemy-referencing racket, a very different animal to the British musician's biggest hit, Paper Planes. "I guess it's coming out at a time where I think in America it's kinda cool to hear something like this," she said. "It's in keeping with what I released before … I'm gonna gradually ease people into the new sound as the album goes on."
