The opening bars of this song takes me straight back to my Goldeneye days on Nintendo 64. It sounds uncannily like the backing of the Bond music used in those games, minus the trademark 007 melody, the sounds of guns being fired and proximity mines exploding.

The track becomes more mature (post Goldeneye sound effects) as it goes on. The biggest change being its far more polished sound and recording, quite unlike the rawness of tracks like "Boys", "Bird Flu" and "$20" from the previous album. Unfortunately for this track, it doesn’t quite match up to the cheek and attitude of Kala. While it’s strong, bold and certainly different to the M.I.A we knew before, I think for most fans, that tough yet smoking-hot-badass-ness was a huge part of her appeal.

The lyrics are a 'fight the power' statement of “You want me be somebody who I’m really not” mixed in with seductive flirting “then we hit the floor, all I know is you leave me wanting more”. Throw in a technology reference “Cause you tweeting me like tweety bird on your iPhone” and you have XXXO.
If this is a teaser of what the coming album is due to sound like, I am curious to hear how it goes and hope that she hasn’t totally shed the brashness. In the meantime though, I’ll still be listening to "Paper Planes".

Review Score: 7/10

Featured picture sourced from CityPages Blog.