World > Latin World > Alternative Latin

Advantages: Great musical album
Disadvantages: don't understand all the words... but who cares!

This guy is french, but the songs are written in all sorts of languages... french, spanish, english, portugeuse... possible many more. a marvelous melange of language, culture and rhythms. he is huge in france, spain, south america... any country where the above mentioned romantic languages are spoken. So.. why would an anglophone like this album? Well it is superb music. The mix and lyrics mix is great. La Primavera is an infectious pop song that ...
...this album blend into each other perfectly, leaving almost no silence between them. It's a great holiday album and a great album to have on when you're getting ready to go out... I even listen to it when I'm reading a book. Manu chao has several other albums, but this 2001 release is my personal favourite by far. He does concerts every now and then and is completely electric. He's known as the latino bob marley in south america! this is the track ... Read review

Advantages: Quick rhytm
Disadvantages: Too repetitive

This album was a revelation back in 1998. For the French and Spanish MANU CHAO was the frontman of Mano Negra,one of the best bands of ska punk of the 90´s.Then Manu decided to go solo and he did pretty well though in a much softer way. If you like different rythms,latin,reagge,ska,pachanga,punk...there´s Manu with a mixture of all these and his own blend ,of course. He likes to mix cultures,worlds,languages....you can find songs sung in English,Spanish,French,Portuguese... ...
...you will get hooked on it.Anyway don´t expect a wonderful voice as Manu´s is just different but not great. The lyrics are very good,especially the ones for "Clandestino" and "Desaparecido". The main subjects that Manu talks about are immigration,anti-globalisation,human rights,legalisation,partying,hypocresy... In some of the songs you can listen to added extracts from Latin American radio stations,fragments of radio soaps and even personal answering ... Read review

Advantages: Musicality
Disadvantages: None

I completely agree on the review I read in deflamenco.com which, together with a recommandation from a good friend was the reason why I bought this record. The review is so well formulated that I will refer some of it: " El Pele has three very distinct characteristics which set him apart from all other cantaores: 1) he has a very unique voice, something like a fingerprint, which is highly recognizable; 2) he is capable of reaching notes well higher ...
...of melody, which he uses to broaden the possibilit