Customer Reviews

La Radiolina [Vinyl]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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~]

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.

OK-so when I saw a new album from Manu Chao-I wanted to see what he had been up to. I was sorely dissapointed to find that not much has changed. His style is the same and I guess I am not as much of a fan as I was in the past. You might as well buy the older, classic stuff

La Radiolina is a magical album. One of those rare collections that only gets better with each listening. Songs like Mala Fama and Me Llaman Calle wil treat fans hungry for the smoother sounds found on Clandestino but Rainin in Paradie and Politk Kills will show how up to date Manu is. Get the album, listen to it a few times, learn a few new words and spread the spirt of Manu with those around you.

Born in France to refugees from Franco's Spain, Manu Chao is a performer whose appeal is much more than merely musical.
Poly-lingual, perpetually globetrotting and vehemently anti-capitalist, the singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer is the one-man embodiment of an ideology of inter-cultural cool, which, judging by his sales figures, a great many people would like to buy into.
Chao began his career in the early 1990s, apeing the Clash with the frankly unlistenable, French roots-punk band Mano Negra.
His 1998 solo debut Clandestino sold five million, and he came to wider attention in 2005 for his production of the blind musicians Amadou & Mariam's joyous Dimanche a Bamako.They genuinely gave world music a good name.
Six years in the making, Chao's third solo album La Radiolina (Italian for "transistor radio") was recorded on a laptop on the hoof around the world, and endlessly edited and revised - Chao manipulating riffs and guitar solos the way a dance music producer does grooves and breaks.
While both of Chao's earlier records were actually pretty good and probably deserved more attention in the UK and America than they received, his latest outing is decidedly weak.
The CD lacks the catchy killer tracks that Chao previously produced so it will never get too much radio play. Anyway it may be the album that breaks the Spanish-Spanish star Manu Chao to a mainstream Anglo-American audience.
Nothing here is terrible; it's just there doesn't seem to be much point in the whole affair.
The record lurches something rotten and the incredibly short tracks do little to draw the listener into the record. One second you are listening to something that sounds a bit like a French teenager singing a karaoke version of a forgotten Smiths' B-side (as on "The Bleedin Clown") and the next it sounds like Santana has been let loose on a Spanish-language track.
All the endless mixing-editing-manipulating of sounds is supposed to recreate the vitality and vibrancy of street life in a South American city or something, but it ends up sounding like a local workman is constantly changing the channel on his radio about three feet from the backpacker's hostel you are trying to sleep in.
You end up with an uncomfortable feeling that the whole album might have a something of a political agenda, a manifesto from which you feel excluded. unless that yoy speak a billion languages...
Things begin to take off as he developes a more laid-back approach, distilling rockabilly, ska, African and Latin elements into a musk-like essence that he has breathed over a range of huge-selling projects, he gives rein to the full range of his influences, ranging from the world/blues/rockabilly crossover of "13 Dias", with its scuttling, fast-picked guitars, and the distorted guitars, synths and sirens of the electro-rock bulldozer "Rainin' In Paradize", to the shuffling Balkan-reggae-mariachi skank of "Politik Kills", which, unusually for this anarcho-left activist, seems to dismiss the entire political realm.
The effect is bracingly immediate and dizzyingly contemporary, the album's sound has a blaring transistorised excitement that perfectly complements Chao's murmur of a voice.
Some of the arrangements, subjected to Chao's customary recycling approach as the basis for subsequent songs - the backing track to "Rainin' In Paradize" alone recurs a further four times - lends the album something of the air of a suite, or a soundtrack.
There are some good songs, like tracks "La Vida Tombola" and "Mama Cuchara".
But, most importantly, for the idealistic and the hippie-punk political attitude in you, you sense the feeling that Manu Chao, playing his songs and knocking off some music on his laptop, makes it all seem so easy, you might as well, you feel, change the world while you're about it..like in "Polititik Kills" and "Rainin' in Paradize".
But that's the way it is with rock-and-roll politics: revolution is always as near and as far as the next good riff.

This review is for those of you who don't know Manu Chao.

Manu is a 40+ year old world musician, who primarily sings in French and Spanish, but uses Catalan, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern tunes & rhythms in his music.

This album, "La Radiolina" is currently a huge sensation in Europe, primarily because it pays homage to so many varied European styles all on one album. Its great that he's slowly catching on within the United States, because this is another world musician (alongside Susheela Raman) who is huge in Europe but virtually unknown here. In France, this CD played tug of war for the No. 1 spot on the charts (it finally lost to Vanessa Paradis' incredible new CD "Divinidylle").

There are a few tracks worthy of mention. Prime amongst them are : "Panik Panik", "Otro Mundo", and "Piccola Radiolina" (which is more of an interlude, but what an amazing one it is!). I especially liked "Y Ahora Que?" and "Siberia". Manu's strength is fusion music, and he does it seamlessly over here. Some tracks just have a tune and rhythm but no vocal. Again, this works to his advantage. For years, Manu Chao used to cruise on his good looks to sell his albums - although he was talented. Its great to see that as he gets older, he's investing more thought and preparation into his music. This CD is his best yet.

Heres the thing - this album is severely underrated and unknown within the US. If you're a true lover of world fusion music, get this now. Its unlikely to be topped this year.

Also, if you liked this, do check out "33 1/3" by Susheela Raman, "Vol 2 : Release" by Afro Celt Sound System, and "Gold" by Noa. All three are essential world music albums you need to have in your collection.

In fact, I guess he never left. I love this record upon first listen - frenetic, guitar-heavy and relevant - manu speaks for the many who are not heard yet he remains optimistic! We continue to dance to the beat and follow his pace. Can't wait to see this record live again - prospect park, NYC this past June was unlike any concert I've been to - including an encore in the rain. Don't make us wait so long next time Manu!

A new cd after a long time, but it's a bit more of the same- which is okay by itself, but not an improvement on Clandestino or Esperanza.

I have a big problem with the Chao. I can listen to his songs forever without getting tired. If they were on the old vinyl, it would have worn out on me a million times.
This new album is more acoustical and melodic than previous releases, but his lyrics have also achieved more richness and depth. Clandestino and Esperanza are still the most played of my library, this will get the first spot....and please Manu, let's not wait another 6 years.