La Radiolina


La Radiolina is the fourth studio album by Manu Chao. It was released on 4 September 2007. Italy saw an advance release of the album on 30 August.
"Rainin in Paradize", the first single from the album, was available before its official release for download on his website. The single features a music video directed by Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica. There is also a video for the song "Me Llaman Calle", featuring Manu Chao performing in a local bar.

Track listing

  1. "13 Días"
  2. "Tristeza Maleza"
  3. "Politik Kills"
  4. "Rainin in Paradize "
  5. "Besoin de la Lune"
  6. "El Kitapena"
  7. "Me Llaman Calle"
  8. "A Cosa"
  9. "The Bleedin Clown "
  10. "Mundorévès"
  11. "El Hoyo"
  12. "La Vida Tómbola"
  13. "Mala Fama"
  14. "Panik Panik"
  15. "Otro Mundo"
  16. "Piccola Radiolina"
  17. "Y Ahora Qué?"
  18. "Mama Cuchara"
  19. "Siberia"
  20. "Soñe Otro Mundo"
  21. "Amalucada Vida"

    Languages and style

The album's title La Radiolina means the small radio in Italian, referring to a small-sized transistor radio. The album is mainly sung in Spanish. "Politik Kills", "Rainin In Paradize", "The Bleedin Clown" and the first two lines of "Siberia" are in English; "Besoin de la Lune" and "Panik Panik" are in French; "A Cosa" is in Italian, a first for Manu Chao; "Amalucada Vida" is in Brazilian Portuguese.
Musically, the album features a trademark of Manu Chao's style in its re-utilizing of the same instrumental backing tracks with different melodies and lyrics:
A similar "recycling" process also affects some of the lyrics. "Tristeza Maleza" features the repeated phrase "Infinita Tristeza", from the album ; the lyrics for "Besoin de la Lune" originally appeared with different music, and in a slightly longer version, on the album Sibérie m'était contéee; that same album also included the original French lyrics of "Sibérie", which Chao partly translated in "Siberia"; the lyrics for "Mama Cuchara" were originally written in Quito, Ecuador, during a rainy Sunday, and originally appeared, with different music, in Chao's short film "Infinita Tristeza", included in the Kikelandia bonus section of the 2002 Babylonia en Guagua DVD. Additionally, "13 Días" and "Otro Mundo" contain phrases appearing several times in Chao's previous output, such as "Me hielo en la habitación / No tengo calefacción" in "13 Días" and "Calavera no llora / Serenata de amor" in "Otro Mundo". The lyrics to the tracks "Panik Panik" and "Politik Kills" are the same as those in the tracks "Camions Sauvages" and "Politic Amagni" respectively on Amadou & Mariam's album Dimanche à Bamako which was produced by Manu Chao.

Personnel/credits

Year-End Charts
Chart Peak
position
US Billboard Top World Albums14

Sales and certifications

!scope="row"|Worldwide