M.I.A ?

July 14 2010, Published 9:28 a.m. ET

The name of M.I.A.’s new album is a tad confusing—///Y/—but it’s really just a fancy way of saying Maya. The Londoner-by-way-of-Sri Lanka is back with her third album and plenty more of her unique blend of hip-hop, dancehall, world music and clever rhymes set to catchy beats. "I wanted to make something more personal, and more organic, and real, and that connected to my life,” M.I.A. said recently of her time recording the album, after just giving birth. She set up a comfy mini-studio in her home so she could keep a close watch on the baby and the set-up was just what she wanted. “There was no pressure, basically. And that was the most important thing to me was, at the time, not being in this huge studio that cost so much money, with all these people and engineers, and you know, like, with the pressure of making hits."……

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