Here's a little advice for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: Forget about Angelina Jolie. You want M.I.A. as your goodwill ambassador.

For those not thoroughly floored by (i.e., unfamiliar with) her debut album "Arular" two years ago, M.I.A. is Maya Arulpragasam, a British-born Sri Lankan refugee turned mixed-media art student who incorporates rhythms and dialects from around the world in a 21st-century hodgepodge of electronica, hip-hop and dance music.

The global hybridization of "Arular" hit hard in 2005, but there was doubt among many that the same formula would prove as novel on future efforts. With "Kala," her sophomore LP coming out Tuesday, M.I.A. proves that her twist on cultural appropriation has life left in it yet.

When she chants "M.I.A. is coming back with power power!!" on the opening "Bamboo Banga," she unwittingly stumbles upon the underlying appeal of "Kala." Taken at face value, the lyric is mere hyperbole — none of the songs here hit like "Galang" or "Sunshowers." But she speaks the truth in a larger and decidedly less likely sense: M.I.A. is back with staying power.

The only real pitfall on "Kala" is the same one that befell "Arular," that being M.I.A.'s eagerness to appoint herself the spokeswoman for impoverished people everywhere, a questionable move for a well-to-do British graphic designer. But her enthusiasm and energy is undeniably infectious.

Jolie needs to watch her back.