CD of the WEEK: MayaInterscope ****

“Head bone connects to the neck bone. Neck bone connects to the arm bone. Arm bone connects to the hand bone. Hand bone connects to the internet bone. Internet bone connects to the Government bone.”

This is how Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam’s third studio album begins. The message is clear: M.I.A. is still the female hip-hop Noam Chomsky.

It’s impressive, not only because her label has probably asked her to tone down the polemics, but because the singer, who is of British and Sri Lankan heritage, was never one to contrive a radical-chic image. M.I.A. deals in today’s headlines, and does so with an intelligent grasp of how blandly the Western liberal media treat today’s most pressing geopolitical fault lines.

Having crossed over into the blurry mainstream with Paper Planesfrom her last album, it would have made box-office sense to slipstream it for a while, but instead she really goes for it with a sprawling, Sandinista!-type album that touches base along its scenic route with rap, r'n'b, dubstep, reggae, highlife and industrial noise.

It’s the sort of sonic clatter Tricky would have made if he had ever worked with the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.

When she does do relatively conventional – such as on the brilliant XXXO, where she shows she's still capable of something as good as Paper Planes– there remains a satirical lyrical undertone, notably her oblique swipes at other female r'n'b singers.

The fractious dubstep of Teqkillasees her losing the plot briefly by simply squashing the song with superfluous studio effects, but the most overtly political song here, Lovalot, shows how she can be a one-person Massive Attack. And that is really saying something.

M.I.A. may or may not be familiar with the work of the pioneering German industrial noise act Einstürzende Neubauten, but there are certainly influences aplenty from that quarter here. But what strikes most is how even when she overreaches (which she does a few times), she does so in an intricately interesting way.

If you’ve been looking for a quick-acting and powerful antidote to Lady Gaga, you’ve found it here – on repeat prescription.

See miauk.com

Download: XXXO, Lovalot