Arular
by M.I.A.
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M.I.A. bestography
Arular is ranked 2nd best out of 10 albums by M.I.A. on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by M.I.A. is Kala which is ranked number 777 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,213.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Arular on YouTube
Arular track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Arular rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 26 minutes ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  eclab | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | 56/100 | 9 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Urb Best Albums 2005 | 10/10 | - |
| 2026 |  covecove | Favorite Albums 200-101 | 3/100 | - |
| 2026 | Rivera | World | 30/100 | - |
| 2026 | cicadelic | H Magazine (ES) Albums of the Year 2005 | 10/30 | - |
| 2026 | Rivera | Best of Rest 2 | 54/100 | - |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Music Albums of 2005 | 17/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | daCritic | Top 27 Music Albums of 2005 | 8/27 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Top 60 Music Albums of 2005 | 38/60 | 2 |
| 2026 |  junodog4 | Top 20 Music Albums of 2005 | 11/20 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 265 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,252 | |||
Arular collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 94 members
Arular ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 287 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/08/2026 19:36 | xhitmanx | 1,602 | 75/100 |
| ! | 06/08/2026 20:10 | AledJames | 1,677 | 69/100 |
| ! | 06/06/2026 13:57 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,606 | 70/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 15% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.2/100, a mean average of 72.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 18.1.
Arular favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 30 members
Forum mentions
imacgill 12/31/2024 00:05 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
BestEverAlbums 02/28/2024 21:00 in Album of the day (#4819): Arular by M.I.A.Arular comments
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(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
planetneutral 02/02/2021 18:38 | #265600
Really like the vibe and attitude, but it becomes hard to ignore the repetitiveness.
Boltzmann 01/11/2020 19:55 | #246714
There are two sides to this album.
The production that sounds like how the cover looks; a messed up mesh (meshed up?) of Indian folk and electroclash (one of the best things this decade has brought) on a mostly dancehall rhythm.
The seductive, rapped vocals that inspired many non-black women to rap. Who knows, maybe Robyn heard 'Sunshowers' or 'Galang' in 2004, but in any case M.I.A. was first and I don't like to believe in coincidences. They might both be inspired by Peaches, but her sound comes closer to punk, but as we have seen in the '80s too, the line between punk and hip hop are easily blurred. Anyway, when you zoom in on one concept in music and try to find its origin, you often find yourself going too far back to something that doesn't slightly sound alike, and one should give credit to the person that got the total picture right: "it's not about who did it first, but about who did it right". Weird place for a Drake lyric, but it's true.
junodog4 03/15/2019 04:26 | #233572
This has seriously grown on me...
An utterly explosive debut blending culture and politics into its oddball hip-hop tapestry. I absolutely adore everything about "Arular".
Explosive debut from M.I.A. Completely fresh and eclectic whilst being accessible; it's completely its own thing and remains one of the best albums of 2005 & the best from her career (although that may be an unpopular opinion).
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