Manu Chao: La Radiolina
Manu Chao: Likes to bongo
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Monday, 17, Sep 2007 10:36
Because Music, out on September 17th.
In a Nutshell.
Where's the king of bongos now?
What's it all about
It's been a while since Manu Chao's last studio outing - 2001's Proxima Estacion: Esperanza. But, six years down the line, Mr Chao is back and bringing his Latin folk/afro beat/world/punk sound to 21 new and annoyingly eclectic tracks
It's not just the genres that Manu Chao likes to mash up - on La Radiolina he leaps from French to Spanish to English to Arabic and veers giddily from rockabilly to funk as he tries to prove world music has some merit.
A lot's happened in the world since his last album and this gives the leftist Chao plenty to sing about: George Bush and the US's various wars; global poverty; some other issues that we'd know more about if we spoke Spanish.
Who's It By.
Manu Chao is actually ridiculously famous. You just might not realise it if you've never ventured into the world music section of your local HMV.
In fact, Chao is one of the biggest selling artists in the whole world.
After serving his time in some French punk and alternative bands in the 80s and 90s, the Spanish-born, French-brought-up son of a journalist formed Manu Negra with his brother and some mates. A host of successful tours around Central and South America meant they obtained a massive following in the non-English speaking world before they spit in the mid-90s.
Undaunted, Manu Chao returned to Spain, formed Radio Bemba Sound System and started the whole South American touring thing again. The result was 1998's Clandestino and 2001's Proxima Estacion: Esperanza.
Along the way, Manu managed to become one of the biggest selling artists in the world and produce Mali duo Amadu and Miriam's seminal Dimanche a Bamako.
Despite this, he's remained relatively unknown in the English-speaking world, except to people who have heard one of the million of dance remixes of King of Bongo or went to South America on their gap year.
As an example
"Politik need votes, politik need your mind/politik need human beings/politik need lies/that's why my friend politik is a heavy dance/politik needs violence" - Politik Kills
What the others are saying
"A batch of songs that mostly sound like Manu Chao on cruise control" - Robin Denselow in the Guardian
"Though he sings mostly in French or Spanish, Chao's music is so sonically vivid, so gloriously evocative, translation seems almost superfluous" - Tom Sinclair in Entertainment Weekly
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys?
World music always seems to do well come award time. It might be something to do with the all the judges think they'll look a bit racist if they don't claim they like this sort of thing. Unfortunately, La Radiolina lacks the catchy killer tracks that Chao previously produced so shouldn't get too much radio play. It would be much better if the award people went back in time and gave out some awards for Manu's work with the blind musicians Amadu and Miriam. They genuinely gave world music a good name.
So is it any good?
In the UK, Manu Chao is principally the preserve of people who wear Crocs and self-satisfied smile because they spent three months in a small village in Bolivia smoking pot.
While both of Chao's earlier records were actually pretty good and probably deserved more attention in the UK than they received, La Radiolina is decidedly weak.
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 your 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 again.
All the hodgepodge of sound is probably supposed to recreate the 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.
There are some OK songs, like tracks La Vida Tombola and Mama Cuchara, but there's certainly nothing that Lily Allen or Robbie Williams are going to be rushing to cover anytime soon.
In all, you end up with an uncomfortable feeling that the whole album might have a something of a political agenda - one which you're excluded from unless you speak about a billion languages. And there's something downright unsettling about that nagging sense that you've secretly been politicised by a man who thinks that bongos are a nifty musical instrument.
5/10
James Cooper
"This album is actually pretty good. Don't let the opinion of this poor reviewer take you away from Manu Chao's music which should be a separate music genre by itself." - Anon