MIA

A funny thing happened when M.I.A played her new track, “Come Walk With Me,” at the Pitchfork Music Festival this past July: The crowd gave zero fucks. Worse than that, upon realizing the bomb on her hands, she stopped the backing track and restarted the song, imploring to the crowd,“Oi! We’re shooting a music video. Let’s go Crazy!”

With a little more familiarity, there’s no reason “Come Walk With Me,” can’t become another signature track for M.I.A. It begins with a timeless pop melody, one that wouldn’t be out of place in the fifties or sixties, and a slight ska undertones. The old-timers would call this An old school clap track comes in during the chorus. Then, shit goes bananas. And bonkers. And ape shit. “Come Walk With Me” is M.I.A’s best chance at a pop-crossover since “Paper Planes.” And, it happened to have the most awkward of introductions.