La Radiolina

Manu Chao | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: June 27, 2007
• Label: Nacional Records
• Copyright: 2007 Nacional Records
• Total Length: 50:52
• Genres: International/Europe, International/Latin Music, Latin Music/Latin Pop
• ASIN: B000V8YSTA
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,768 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)
  • #80 in MP3 Downloads > MP3 Albums > Latin Music > Latin Pop

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Manu rocks out!, October 5, 2007

By 

James Rhodes "Deep Thought" (St. Louis) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: La Radiolina (Audio CD)

I'm a real Manu Chao fan and while I originally felt this album was a bit too repetitious, I've gotten to really enjoy this CD more and more since I've had it. It is very fast paced but I really enjoy a lot of the material on the CD. It's another good CD by Manu Chao.

41 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars ADD Kills, October 9, 2007

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: La Radiolina (Audio CD)

Manu Chao is quite the interesting cat, with potentially joyous and groundbreaking music that celebrates international culture while slyly resisting globalization. He's got a fresh and intriguing sound that mixes Europop with world music of the Latin/Afro/Caribbean persuasions, with some westernized rock and rhythm mixed in. His lyrics jumping amongst five different languages are also a polyglot delight. With so much going for him, it's hard to imagine how Manu Chao could create such a massively disappointing and annoying misuse of his skills. This album contains 21 largely interchangeable tracks that zoom by with the validity of poorly-designed mashups and with not much more impact than a series of ringtones. The five so-called bonus tracks are merely undeveloped snippets of riffs and melodies that already appeared earlier, and most of the songs overall end quickly after failing to develop a series of very similar basic ideas. This album's production process suffered an ADD-addled breakdown.

An ignoramus would say that all the songs sound the same, but here the discerning listener will find that many of them really ARE the same. Five different songs contain the exact same backing tracks with minimally different melodies on top, and even more songs than that contain the same irritating four-note ascending guitar line. Other basic melodies are also recycled (not reprised, mind you) throughout the album. The initially lovely ballad "A Cosa" also reuses a backing track that Manu contributed to an album by African popsters Amadou & Mariam two years ago. Reprising themes throughout an album can be an effective artistic device, but here it's just widespread replication of undeveloped ideas. Hence, only a few songs in this mishmash can truly stand on their own, such as the sly "Politik Kills" or the rockin' "Rainin in Paradize" (which is the first, and only useful,, appearance of that annoying riff). Otherwise, this album is little more than quantities of different manifestations of a very limited number of quality ideas. You may get the feeling that the album takes longer to listen to than it did to record. [~doomsdayer520~]

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to paradise!, September 3, 2007

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: La Radiolina (Audio CD)

Manu Chao is a not what you think of "world music" as being. For many people, that equals weird, inaccessable music played on instruments you can't identify.

In the case of Manu Chao, it means something far warmer and more enjoyable, full of driving catchy Eurorock rhythms, funky edges, a crazy Spanish flavour, and vaguely political sensibilities. It's been six years since his last internationally-released album, but "La Radiolina" (translation: the little radio) was an event worth waiting for.

It kicks off with the "13 D¡as," a racing blur of folky-rocky-guitar and lots of mumbling. But that's only the warm-up into the melodious, brass-band-edged rocker "Tristeza Maleza," which sounds like Spoon got invaded by Andalusian musicians, and the hypnotic guitar-rap of "Politik Kills ("Politik needs your mind/politik needs human beings/politik needs lies...")

And with the driving, blurring, siren-laden "Rainin In Paradize," the album really blossoms into all it can be -- colourful bouncy folkpop, sensual ballads, meditative little tunes, driving little rockers flavoured with odd sounds and fiery tight guitars, and a long stretch of swirling Spanish-inspired music.

It finishes up with a wicked trio of songs -- a kinetic, high-speed electrorocker with a sly smile woven into all the buzzing, a meditative little instrumental on acoustic guitar, and finally the driving "Y Ahora Qu_" with its blazing bass and ringing riffs.

It's a suitably energetic finale to an album that is uptempo and intense, but without being oppressive about it. Instead, Mano Chao gives his music a relaxed feel -- it's like being at a colourful nighttime party with plenty of food, drink and dancing, but in a city full of turmoil during the day.

The main instrument here is guitar, and it's played here with extreme versatility -- depending on who's playing it, it can form driving, hard riffs, peppy pop rhythms, or a sensual cascade of gentle flamenco strings. Wound around it is a colourful array of other instruments -- blaring rows of trumpets, rattling drums, strong basslines, and waves of looping, buzzing and/or shimmering keyboard. It's pretty intense,

I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know more than a spattering of Spanish or French, and only a little more Spanglish. But the meaning behind many of these songs is pretty clear, with Chao taking aim with his smooth voice -- the violent face of politics, the "wind of Washington," and the "paradises" of the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe with its fatalities, atrocities, and rain.

Manu Chao's colourful, world-music style is one that it's hard not to warm to, and "La Radiolina" is a primo example of what he can conjure. Beautiful, creative and full of life.