After more than a year of not releasing new music, M.I.A. premiered her new song, “Can See Can Do,” on Soundcloud Saturday morning. The singer had originally planned on sharing another new song, “All My People,” today but she changed her mind and at the last minute debuted “Can See Can Do” instead.
On Twitter she gave her reasoning for not releasing “All My People”:
ACTUALLY I WANT TO RELEASE " ALL MY PEOPLE " WHEN ALL MY PEOPLE ARE READY— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) March 7, 2015
“Can See Can Do” sounds very similar to her 2013 album, Matangi, which was in Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Albums of 2013 list, but it lacks the energy of “Bad Girls” and the cleverness of her 2007 hit, “Paper Planes.” M.I.A. has always had eclectic and slightly controversial political lyrics, which is a part of her appeal, but “Can See Can Do” is just a little weird in a bad way. It’s also surprisingly romantic for the singer who infamously flipped the bird at the 2012 Superbowl Halftime Show. The song focuses on moving forward to build a better future.
“Some people see planes,” She sings, “Some people see drones / Some people see a do and some people see a don't / Can see can do / Can we get past history?/ Wanna make a future with you.”
This is only the first song we will hear from M.I.A. this year. She teased the possibility of a releasing a follow-up album this summer on Twitter, “to my hardcore fans hang in there summer is coming.” “Can See Can Do” might be one of the first songs already trying to vie for the Song of the Summer title.
