Title, release date of new M.I.A. album revealed

Finally, more news about M.I.A.’s (love her to bits but it’s a bitch typing her name because of all the periods) upcoming new album. And if I’m complaining about typing her name, then the album’s title will just make it more difficult.

The new album will be called / \ / \ / \ Y / \. Before you start thinking that M.I.A. has suddenly acquired Prince-like delusions, look at it closely. Those “glyphs” actually spell out her nickname MAYA. Clever, isn’t it. The stylized title actually reflects M.I.A.’s roots in visual art and graffiti. Stricty speaking, the new album is actually self-titled, only more creatively written and displayed.

Now that we know the title, the next bit of info to be revealed regarding the album is the new release date. The earlier announcement was that it will be released on June 29. But the new dat has been pushed back a couple of weeks to July 13. There’s no explanation as to why it was pushed back. But with just a two week delay, it’s something that fans can obviously live with. But if you think that is still too long a wait then you can head offer to the N.E.E.T. web site (M.I.A.’s custom imprint) and head over to the site’s blog, which streams the new single off the album entitled “XXXO”. Just to clarify, the single streaming from the N.E.E.T. blog is the “RIGINAL BLAQSTARR VERSION” of the song, and is markedly different from the single being sold on iTunes and what’s being played on the radio.