Manu Chao RFI,C/D, S+D, whatever

The popularity of Bob Marley that he saw made him reevaluate some of his approaches and he travelled around, taping himself and others playing and released the results as Clandestino.

Mano Negra - the Best of is your best bet, very different from his solo stuff tho King of Bongo is here in the first of its many reworkings.

Chao- Proxima Estaction: Esperanza is very similar to Clandestino. if youliked it, you'll like that.
Radio Bemba Sound System: live album, much closer to Mano Negra in energy. Smeone on oanotherthread was highly recommending the dVd of it.

I prefer the stuff he did with Mano Negra to his solo stuff but it's all great.

Search: all of it (duh!) but Puta's Fever is probably the best.

I'll make a humble contribution when I come back from the supamarket. KTHXBYE

Go get the best of compilation. It is distilled greatness. Start there. If you like the mellower moments best, follow it up with Manu's solo stuff. It is trés stoner-friendly. Clandestino is better than Esperanza, if only 'cuz Esperanza is more of the same, 'cept less inspired, sans a few choice cuts. The live albums for both Radio Bemba and Mano Negra are rather manic and speed induced, pogo skankin' full-throttle ska craziness that at times seems reminiscent of prime RHCP and Fishbone, and that might scare some peeps away, but it wouldn't be anywhere near fair to make that comparison really, 'cuz bby, it's so much more than that. As for late period MN (Casa Babylon), it is very hyper, sample friendly, and has a very noticeable hip-hop influence, yakkity yakk...Mano Negra's best are Puta's Fever and Casa Babylon, so go get whatever's up yr alley, ya dig?

that one song, i never want to hear it again ever

We can never be friends now. You've ruined it FOREVER.

for example a restaurant review called the decor of some trendy new fusion place "very manu chao"

High school girlfriend goes to Europe for a couple weeks in the summer, comes back with Manu Chao CD -- "Oh my god, they were playing this ALL over Europe. It's like THE SHIT there! It totally reminds me of my trip! Everything's so much more DIFFERENT there! I wish you could have seen it!"... then she breaks up with you because she just can't relate to your worldview anymore.

I remember before anyone in the states had heard of Jamiroqui, he filled this same role...

And the description of the restaurant is hilarious.

Again, though, I love Manu Chao's music. Best party records around.

Mano Negra did their part to bring back folk instrumentation in a rock context which is cool, but the ....compositional template is so basic and blatantly repeated up to Chao's recent stuff it makes one cringe. Chao himself is redeemed by his social/political militancy, but/therefore musically redundant. And now I'll read the answers up there

I also wanted to say this actually. Which only makes it worse.

new album is great. he also put on one of the best shows i've seen this year. people who seem to have confused him with the gipsy kings or something make no sense to me.

Gipsy Kings have little to do with him except they also rehash a samey limited repertoire over and over and over and over and over- but their ethno schtick is much less insufferable than his asinine world pop IMO.

world pop, yes. asinine only if you mistake lightness for liteness. i hear tight pop songs, nice hooks, pogo-punky beats, and i think this album is my favorite thing he's done since puta's fever.

i love the new one and the fact that he's actually dipping into the "rock" idiom more. "The Bleedin' Clown" on the new one is an example of what i mean. it feels to me like something the Clash could've done had they remained active

I loved Proxima Estacion before I all the way dipped my toes into "world" music, and I'm no Norah fan. The new one, La Radiolina, hasn't made it for me yet.

I've been liking Radiolina, but only listened to it twice so far... not enough to write distinct impressions.

Once here.

I can't say Radiolina is all that good. There are a few really good tracks here and there, "Politik" and a couple others, but even the good tracks don't compare at all with the best stuff on the first two albums. I mostly find it a little repetitive and uninspired. It's funny, though, because both Clandestino and Proxima Estacion play a lot, of course, with repetition, reprises, re-playing of motifs and stuff, but that worked so well for those albums. On Radiolina, it really seems like Chao only wrote 5 songs and gave up. There's also something really down about it, like he sounds a little depressed even though he's singing more upbeat rock songs. It made me a little sad -- Clandestino is one of my favorite albums ever, I don't think I've ever gotten sick of it. It's so raucous, angry, and dark, it's fantastic. Radiolina is dark, too, but it sounds more like the guy just gave up on the world. There's nothing nearly as playful as Proxima Estacion or as subversive Clandestino. It sucks 'cos I really want to like it, I love those first two albums and Chao seems like a cool guy, but it's just not doing it for me.

This.

My wife put on Radiolina this afternoon, still sounds good. What has he been doing for the last 8 years? I gather he still plays a lot of festivals, but no new material I'm aware of.