W.O.W. A shocker of a video for M.I.A.‘s new single “Born Free” is out. The track will be included on her forthcoming Neet/Interscope release. Here’s a tracklist for the yet-untitled album.
Watch video on Vimeo (not worksafe, and not for kids: nudity/sex/violence). Directed by Romain Gavras, full credits here. A live version is here. You can listen to the track here.
The song is a thrilling, aggressive, hardcore electric anthem and heavily samples “Ghost Rider” by Suicide (ca. 1977, buy MP3 here). As my friend Clayton wonders aloud, perhaps the lyrics “America America is killing its youth” in the Suicide song influenced the visuals in the M.I.A. video.
At the risk of spoiling the video for first-timers (and making too much light of the themes of racism and militarism it addresses), I will say only three words: global ginger jihad.
(Via M.I.A. on Twitter; also spotted on Dangerous Minds & LA Times on Friday, and everywhere else by this morning).