Providing her fans with the gift that keeps on giving - music, of course - British rapper, singer, and producer M.I.A. released a new mixtape, Bells Collection, on Christmas Day. The only catch: it's not currently downloadable, and it's presently only available for your streaming enjoyment through the website Ohmni.com.
The impending arrival of Bells Collection was announced in a press release on December 22, wherein the mixtape was described as "a rebel storm, a synoptic edit of music, created and mixed in Angel, London by M.I.A in December 2023. M.I.A embellishes sounds and words sampling a spectrum of artists and producers. Incredi-bell! The mixtape has a signature sound that purposefully spans time, geography, race, age, space. A limitless, genre-less, frequency. A true and fresh audio-bell vibration. A ding-a-linging in your ears.”
M.I.A. personally introduced the mixtape in her own highly capitalized statement:
"I PRESENT YOU A GIFT FROM THE EAST, STAR OF WONDER STAR OF NIGHT. BEAUTY. BRIGHT. SACRED. COSMIC. MAGNETISM. A COLLABORATION W/ GOD."
The cover art for M.I.A.'s 2022 album, 'Mata'
The full track listing is as follows:
Tracklist:
- Never Alone – M.I.A. / Troy Baker
- Amen – Oliver Rodigan
- Believe a Bell – M.I.A. + Yuvan Shankar Raja
- Box Bells Interlude – M.I.A. Box Comp
- God Kids – Nobell + Gabribell – Chicken Dinner DJ Interlude
- Bella Hadid – M.I.A.
- Kathal (Love) – M.I.A. + Sample Ar Rahman
- Bells in Angel – M.I.A.
- Free Pali – M.I.A.
- Brown Girl in the Ring – M.IA. / Blaq Starr / Bonnny M
- Table Flippin Rebells – M.I.A.
- Un Nenju (Sacred Heart) – M.I.A. Kidkaneval
- Andavan Pray Interlude – M.I.A. / Illayaraja / Yesudas
- Babylon Babell – M.I.A. / Troy Baker
- Solitude – M.I.A. / Rex Kudo / Skrillex
- Galaxy – M.I.A. / Rex Kudo
In the wake of the mixtape's release, M.I.A. spent some time on Twitter, sporadically responding to questions from followers. When asked to release a download of the mixtape "with all 16 tracks separated," she replied, "Only TikTok will have the songs separated soon; TikTok is banned in India, so please share Ohmni site.”
She also took a moment for a religious post:
"Jesus was a martyr, was a revolutionary , was compassionate , saved lives. just a reminder . It’s what the Christian principle is rooted in , healing people and helping the oppressed and self sacrificing for the well being of the innocent. The rest of it is lies+ power=politics."
M.I.A.' most recent release was Mata, released in 2022, following a six-year gap between that and prior album AIM. After earning widespread critical acclaim for her debut, 2005's Arular, she experienced a mainstream breakthrough with 2007's Kala, which saw her notch a Record of the Year Grammy nomination for inescapable single "Paper Planes." Its follow-up, 2010's Maya, was her highest-charting release, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard 200. Her original song from the film Slumdog Millionaire, "O...Saya" was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008, and a documentary about her life and career, Steve Loveridge's Matangi/Maya/M.I.A., won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018.
