M / I.A.

M: The New, Hip, French Munster?



I give you M, aka Mathieu Chédid. With his weird, even gimmicky personal style, you might expect the same of his music, but not so. It is graceful and lovely; his voice has a Jeff Buckley-esque falsetto at times, and the melodies are quite pretty. Some songs have a bit of a raggae influence, such as this one, probably my fave from the album:

M "A Tes Souhaits" [mp3 removed due to bandwith overage, :( ]

Wait, another look at the hair:



Here's what little I know about him: he is a huge star in france, "dressed in pink suits and adorned by his trademark M-shaped hair-do he enters ever larger stages through the heart-shaped hole of a giant inflatable guitar. Once safely on stage, M fires up an enormous glamrock-superstar show." (txt via le pop liner notes).

Check out the gorgeous music video for "Ma Melodie," perhaps one of the most perfectly suited videos for a song I've seen in a long time!

M "Ma Melodie" [video]



And in other news of the M variety...

Over the last week I have fallen in love with the M.I.A. album Arular.



While I like hip hop and stuff with slick programmed beats, I generally don't go for much hip hop. Or spoken-ish vocals. Like I really want to like AGF, and while I respect her, could never get past her vocal stylings (um and the general obtuseness of a lot of her stuff). M.I.A. is a really smart female producer who is also fun! The beats and all remind me a bit of Missy Elliot. I like a lot of the messages on the album ("Pull up the people, pull up the poor"). And the music just feels so fresh and original, though it's tough to place what exactly it is about it. I've been listening to it almost nonstop. It's that kind of album that just gets you pumped. The album also never gets boring cause each song has a different feel. From hard/serious to playful to raggae to asian . . . it's just awesome. Check it out:

M.I.A. "Sunshowers" [mp3 removed due to bandwith overage, :( ]