Review
M.I.A. is basking in the light of A-list exposure at the moment, following her collaboration with Madonna and Nicki Minaj on ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ and her appearance with the aforementioned stars on the most watched broadcast in US television history. No wonder then that M.I.A. has decided to release new single, ‘Bad Girls’ now.
‘Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well’ is the refrain on the latest offering from the British artist. The track is blatantly an unashamed ode to strong females living on the edge. Subtlety has never featured in M.I.A.’s rule book. For the most part, this hits all the right notes – from M.I.A.’s trademark vocals to the Middle Eastern-inspired hook, which is reminiscent of the souk.
The video follows the same theme – filmed in Morocco and featuring a veritable gaggle of semi-veiled femmes-fatales-cum-gansters, it’s typical, feisty M.I.A. fare. Paradoxically, one of the catchiest aspects of the song also turns out to potentially be one of its weakest. M.I.A. sings ‘My chain hits my chest / When I’m bangin’ on the dashboard / My chain hits my chest / When I’m bangin’ on the radio’ several times during the song; it sticks in your head, as any good hook does, but you do get a sense by the end that you’ve heard it perhaps one too many times. Just perhaps.
Ultimately, ‘Bad Girls’ is just good old-fashioned fun. It gets your feet tapping and your head nodding. It may not be as lyrically profound as ‘Paper Planes’, for example, but it is abundantly clear that M.I.A. only had fun in mind when she wrote the track. Fun and bling.
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