Rolling Stone : Elastica

Article : M.I.A.'s Rebel Yell

Thu, 10 Feb 2005 08:59:31 PST

One of the new year's most remarkable albums comes from a twenty-eight-year-old Londoner named Maya Arulpragasam, who records as M.I.A. It also comes, less literally, from the jungles of Sri Lanka, where M.I.A. spent the first nine years of her life, and from the global underground, where she primed her DIY instincts. Arular, M.I.A.'s debut, is a guerrilla-style mishmash of dance-hall beats and jarring sound effects over which she sing-raps in a Brit-inflected urban patois about the displaced...

Album Review : The Radio One Sessions

Tue, 25 May 2004 12:12:36 PDT

Artist: Elastica
Album: The Radio One Sessions
Review: For a brief moment during the mid-Nineties, this female-fronted U.K. pop-punk band was the toppermost of the poppermost in England, and deservedly so. This twenty-one-track collection finds the group rocking all over the place -- short songs and shambling, sassy hooks rule the roost.

CHRISTIAN HOARD
(RS 923, May 29, 2003)

Album Review : The Menace

Mon, 03 May 2004 06:36:03 PDT

Artist: Elastica
Album: The Menace
Review: For listeners who know their British post-punk history, Elastica are the ultimate guilty pleasure. Their 1995 debut, Elastica, still sounds like the work of cheeky plagiarists with taste so cool and tunes so smart that the group's blatant thievery from bands like Wire and the Stranglers is more than forgivable. The Menace, the long-delayed follow-up, finds Elastica in an unrepentant mood, scuffing...

Album Review : Elastica

Mon, 03 May 2004 06:32:13 PDT

Artist: Elastica
Album: Elastica
Review: Back in their native England, Elastica has been tagged as part of a briefly hyped "New Wave of New Wave," and that actually gives you a pretty fair idea what you're in for with this solid if not exactly groundbreaking debut effort. Elastica consists of three women and one man -- guitarists and singers Justine Frischman and Donna Matthews, bassist Annie Holland and drummer Justin Welch. Their sound...