The new LP features seven songs written in seven countries, including Ethiopia, Egypt, and India
M.I.A. has released her seventh studio LP, M.I.7, via her own label OHMNIMUSIC. The album features seven songs written in seven places over seven days in each location, and feature American gospel group Sunday Service.
M.I.7 was written and recorded across Ethiopia, Egypt, India, United Kingdom, Greece, and Australia, as well as in the U.S. at Rick Rubin’s Shangri La Studio. It is structured around the seven trumpets of in the Book of Revelation, with each one narrating a biblical judgment before giving way to the next song.
According to a press release, the album concept “emerged as a vision that revealed itself before the recording process began, which demanded to be followed.” It includes the previously-released single, “Everything.”
M.I.A.’s last album, MATA, arrived in 2022. In a review, Rolling Stone wrote, “Her sixth studio album grasps for the past and, in other ways, wiggles right back into the zeitgeist. … Yes, M.I.A. is still here, but it’s unclear whether she has anything new to say.”
M.I.A. will join Kid Cudi on his The Rebel Ragers tour in North America from April 28 through June 27. The tour kicks off in Phoenix at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre and wraps in Chula Vista, California, at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre.
Last weekend, M.I.A. joined Diplo on stage at Coachella to revisit her single “Paper Planes,” which appeared on her 2007 album, Kala.