Arular

Arular

M.I.A.

Ever since her 2004 self-released mixtape—the acclaimed Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1—M.I.A. has been an unabashedly political artist. So perhaps it’s not surprising that the British Sri Lankan artist’s 2005 debut, Arular, takes its title from the code name her Eelam Tamil activist father Arul Pragasam was using during the Sri Lankan civil war. As M.I.A.—who was born Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam—explained at the time, she’d named the album Arular in the hopes that her largely absent dad would see his moniker on a pop record and reach out (a desire which would eventually become reality). But the album is still Read more on Last.fm.