-M.I.A prepares for next album

Withh M.I.A's new album due out sometime in July one could've only *imagined what

it would sound likee after the release of her last album *Kala , almost 3years ago.

Whilee *Kala was a major crossover success *Diplo , producer of the new album ,

speaks highly of the *NEW direction her album will takee at

MTV's annual SXSW (Southh by Southwest) festival

“[The album] is cool. I think that she’s just wrapping up the mixing and stuff. I was in New York on Thursday, before I came here, I was mixing down the last single for it,” Dip explained. “It’s a record I did for her that’s sort of … you can’t even [explain] what it would sound like. It’s sort of like an Animal Collective/ gospel/ giant-drum record. And she’s singing on it. I think you might expect some rap/club music, but nothing on there. It’s more of a heavy record. All kinds of different sounds. We did, like, a punk thing. … It’s weird.”

“It’s definitely more ‘vibe-y,’ I think. We’ll see if people like it,” he smiled. “My job is to kind of pull it together and make something of it.”

Diplo singled out the track he had just finished mixing — a song called “Tell Me Why” — as a favorite, and said that the still-untitled album is very much an ambitious, deeply personal effort for M.I.A.

” ‘Tell Me Why’ is great,” he said. “It’s a big, kinda giant-sounding record. … It sounds like some Wall of Sound, Motown kind of thing. It’s just me and Switch producing the album, and Blaqstarr did a couple of tracks, too. There are no surprise producers. No guest stars. It’s just her on it. She’s got a good attitude about it. She’s excited for people to hear it.