The outspoken and controversial London artist of Sri Lankan descent creates a challenging aural experience on her third album, camouflaging complex rhythms and minimal melodies beneath a cacophony of noise and effects. Despite coming close to greatness a number of times, M.I.A. Never quite pulls it off, leaving you wondering whether she's more talk than talent.

From her many contentious political comments to her now notoriously controversial video for 'Born Free', it seems Maya Arulpragasam has openly sought to divide opinion. She's a "love her her or hate her" character, and her third album '/\/\/\Y/\' or 'MAYA' (as we'll be referring to it) has provoked similar "love it or hate it" reactions for its imaginatively combined grinding, vacillating, creaking, squealing and generally purposefully unpleasant sounds.

It's true, there's more than one point where MAYA literally hurts your ears, but strangely, the more you listen to it, dynamic rhythmic patterns emerge in what first seemed like senseless noise. The power drill sounds of 'Stepping Up' are excruciating at first, but its deep bass, reverberating thumping beats and highly altered vocals gradually come together in a climactic manner that could never have been half as gratifying without them. Sadly this is not always the case, as the whooping and screeching of the booze-centric 'Teqkilla' only grate more after many, painful, repeated listens.

As ever, Maya's contemporary style is infused with world music influences, not only that of her South Asian heritage, but those from Africa, Jamaica and beyond. But while 'Tell Me Why' sees Maya flex her singing muscles alongside circling chants and solid beats to create one of the album's highlights, the watery reggae of 'It Takes A Muscle' is simply underwhelming, especially in the context of such a brazenly defiant album.

From a lyrical perspective, MIA comes across much less revolutionary, and much more of a pretentious, reactionary and just plain gobby attention seeker. Her anti-political, anti-war stance may be laudable, but it just seems a little too forced - no doubt she's entirely aware of the publicity it buys her. The opening sentiment that the "Hand bone's connected to the internet, connected to the google, connected to the government" is ridiculous conspiracy theory nonsense, while the statement "They told me this is a free country, and now it feels like a chicken factory" seems like she's overstating things just a touch.

Love her or hate her, there's no doubting that MIA is a completely unique artist who, if nothing else, has the ability to kick you well and truly out of your comfort zone and make you think. MAYA will be dividing opinions for a long time to come.