M.I.A. has never been one to hold back. Back in the 2000s, when pop stars were expected to offer up a politically sanitised version of themselves, the British rapper was a breath of fresh air with her criticisms of human rights abuses against the Tamil people and support of Julian Assange drawing controversy. So considering today’s climate of political instability, it seems odd that for the majority of M.I.A.’s supposedly final album, AIM,  she adopts a brighter, more hopeful tone.

Even album opener and lead single ‘Borders’, arguably AIM‘s most politically charged track, takes a back seat compared to previous lead single ‘Bring the Noize’. But ‘Borders’, alongside its video, is M.I.A. at her best, seeing the artist question the very borders we set up and the West’s lacklustre response to the European Migrant Crisis over sizzling trap-influenced beats. ‘Foreign Friend’, a track commenting on the view of people of immigrant background being viewed as the perpetual foreigner no matter how integrated they are, is also implicit in its politics, with only the bridge revealing the true meaning of the song clearly.

However, for the most part AIM is optimistic, and this approach works particularly well with ‘Freedun’, a poppy trip of a track complete with an atmospheric chorus courtesy of One Direction alumni Zayn Malik. In a similar way, album closer and highlight ‘Survivor’ is happy and buoyant. However, this more laid back tactic sometimes results in subjects not being tackled deeply enough. ‘Bird Song’ touches briefly on drones but two lines down eschews the subject to reference R. Kelly and the lyrical content of ‘Fly Pilot’ is way too simplistic to be enjoyable.

All in all, AIM sounds like an artist trying to come to terms with a new more hopeful understanding of the world. With any luck this won’t be her last album, as in these chaotic times, a more hopeful political voice is what the world is crying out for.

Tom Matsuda