Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	87/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Entertainment Weekly	B
The Guardian
The Independent
Los Angeles Times
MSN Music	A+
NME	8/10
Pitchfork	8.9/10
Rolling Stone
Spin

Kala is the second studio album by English-Sri Lankan recording artist M.I.A., released on 8 August 2007 by XL Recordings. The album features musical styles including dance music and makes extensive use of South Asian music such as that of the urumee, a drum used in gaana music native to Tamil Nadu, India. It was mainly written and produced by M.I.A. and Switch, and features contributions from Timbaland, Diplo, Afrikan Boy and The Wilcannia Mob.

M.I.A. named the album after her mother, in contrast to her first album Arular, which was named after her father, and stated that her mother's struggles in life are a major theme of the recording. She began recording the album in early 2006 and worked on the tracks in various locations around the world, including India, Jamaica, Australia, Liberia and Trinidad. Planned sessions in the United States failed to occur, after M.I.A. was refused a long-term work visa to enter the country.

Kala was ranked as one of the best albums of the year by several publications. It reached number eighteen on the Billboard 200 chart and topped the magazine's Top Electronic Albums chart. In the United Kingdom it reached number thirty-nine on the UK Albums Chart. Kala spawned the singles "Bird Flu", "Boyz", "Jimmy" and "Paper Planes". As of 2013 the album had sold over 500,000 copies in the US.

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