M.I.A.'s latest single 'Double Bubble Trouble' now comes with a music video

And it certainly is a peculiar one.

I mean, if 3D-printable handguns, flying peace-sign drones and epilepsy-inducing visuals are your thing, then you're going to love it. Others might be left a little bit confused. The clip is seemingly a commentary on the spreading of the 3D-printing and the effects it might have, and it opens with an advertisement-like line, like a twisted mock commercial: "What if you could make weapons like these in your own home, using what's called a three-dimensional printer? This sounds like science fiction but to some, it's not so far-fetched." Among the things that will be printable (or actually, are already printable) are different kinds of guns which is obviously a risk factor - anyone with the machine can go and print one. Or two. Or a dozen. And there's no control over those. I'm sure everyone can see the problem with that.

The setting of the clip is a ghetto where everybody and their mother seems to be wielding one. M.I.A. also makes references to George Orwell's dystopia novel 1984, but other than that, the message is drowned out by all her trademark hyperactiveness. The guy who blows strings of smoke rings and smoke bubbles is pretty impressive, though.

Anyway, it's an interesting (and moreover, scary) mind game, with M.I.A. delivering yet another controversial message (see her NSA-predicting song "The Message" or the music video for "Born Free", for example). The song itself has kind of grown on me (apart from the last 40 seconds or so), as has the album it's taken from, Matangi. You can check out my review of it over here. Unexpectedly, it has become one of my most-played albums of the year, and I could almost raise it to three stars (I originally gave it 2½ out of 5), but it does still have a fundamental problem: while there are some superb tracks on it, the album as whole is unfortunately rather flawed and uneven, now matter how amazing tracks like "Exodus", "Bad Girls" and "Know It Ain't Right" are. Too bad.





She also appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers, with an equally bizarre performance:






And to listen to an alternative, Spotify-exclusive version of the song, head over here.