Missing in action

A couple of months ago, British rapper M.I.A cancelled her imminent UK tour and hinted at the fact that she may never play a gig again. Having toured second album, Kala, relentlessly for a good twelve months things came to ahead in America (where the album has sold a lot better then it has on home soil) and M.I.A picked up her toys and hurled them out the pram. Probably not the best time then for single 'Paper Planes' to be shooting up the American Billboard 100 on the back of it being used in a trailer for stoner comedy Pineapple Express.

Currently sitting at no. 16 the track looks set to cement M.I.A's standing as one of the more interesting artists currently at work. Ironic then, that it comes at a time when all the press and glowing reviews have stopped and the promotional wheel has stalled. Finally it seems the hype has receded to leave what is one of the best singles of the year so far.



It's all about the music, man.

Such is the song's sudden ubiquity that it was even used in a very surreal episode of Eastenders on Tuesday. Music can sometimes be heard in the background at the cafe while Ian demeans another down trodden wife of his or in the pub where Pat dishes out some pearls of wisdom between the two chandeliers on her ears, but this was used in a scene where the Masood family actually sing along to the chorus, gunshots and everything. "Peggggyyyy, you bitch, you cow, those bloody Masooooods have got M.I.A pumping out their boom box. Apples and pears, plates of meat, etc etc".