A sleeper hit, its prominent placing in the soundtracks to ‘Pineapple Express’ and ‘Slumdog Milliomnaire’ saw it finally crack the charts, big time.
Maya Arulpragasam might have stayed as a pure cult artist, jobbing away on the critically acclaimed fringes with her wildly eclectic stew of electronics, world influences and controversial opinions. However, she only had to go and make one genuine pop masterpiece, didn’t she? Based around an interpolation of The Clash’s ‘Straight To Hell’, ‘Paper Planes’s languid, irresistibly catchy backing weaves a semi-satirical tale of MIA’s difficulties in getting a US visa. A sleeper hit, its prominent placing in the soundtracks to ‘Pineapple Express’ and ‘Slumdog Milliomnaire’ saw it finally crack the charts, big time.