M.I.A.’s latest album Matangi has been delayed by her label who says the new work is ‘too positive,’ she’s revealed in an interview on her current trip out to Australia. Speaking to the Gold Coast’s Coast Confidential, M.I.A. revealed that she finished the new album (her first studio album since 2010) several months ago, but was told to go back to the drawing board to ‘darken it up’.

From the sounds of it, she’s not too impressed with the situation, saying “Having to choose between people… or what I think is of value to the people, and then what is of value to the industry are two different things.”

M.I.A. played Sydney’s Enmore Theatre last Thursday, where she had suggested she was going to try and test out the new album directly on fans; “The only thing I can use my Sydney show for is to run it by my fans,” she explained. Initial reviews have called the gig ‘epic,’ giving hope that we might be hearing those positive tracks released sooner rather than later.

Photo credit: M.I.A. at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on January 4, 2013, from Directlyrics.com.