Manu Chao
Clandestino: Esperando la ultima ola

THE REVIEW

I'm listening to it as I write. It's incredible. Every time I hear this album, I discover something new, something I've never heard before... new notes... of strings plucked from those Spanish guitars... and the sensuality of this music runs down your spine like a warm shiver. It's impossible to imagine Manu Chao's music through words: one must listen.

Listen, and let yourself be carried away by that rocking rhythm that has a bit of Reggae, those guitars that have a bit of Flamenco, and that sad voice that takes you by the hand and leads you into an imaginary world, made of sounds and images so diverse from each other and yet each with its own meaning, each with its own story. The sweet "Clandestino" welcomes you into this world, a sort of melancholic welcome that lulls you to "Desaparecido," where voice and guitar blend harmoniously... but here the past resurfaces... "King of the Bongo" has been mistreated, skinned, destroyed, and buried. And now it has resurrected, reborn in a purer and uncontaminated way, with gentle music and a velvety voice. On the same base, "Je ne t'aime plus" will travel, a slow end to a love... until the soft "Mentira" takes you with its echoes. Only now "Lagrimas de Oro" will explode with its fast guitars, to then release you in a deep breath with "Mama Call," a slow ballad with serene atmospheres... the trumpet of Antoine Chao will awaken you in "Luna y Sol" and the soft "Por el suelo" will take you far away, among the sounds of a fantastic Latin America... from here you'll rise to the border of Mexico and you'll have to stop where everyone stops: "Welcome to Tijuana." "Dia Luna... Dia Pena" will warm your blood in your veins and "Malegria" will drag you with its vitamin charge... and when you are satiated with faraway Americas "La Vie a 2" will bring you back beyond the Alps, among the misty plains and dark forests... a tearful trombone will kiss you on the cheek in the lullaby "Minha Galera" and in "La Despedida" you'll cry on the guitar strings plucked with sadness and "El Viento" will bid you farewell, almost like a goodbye, as if a simple passing wind slipped into your ears... loaded with feelings.