Proxima Estacion Esperanza

 (73 customer reviews)

If you haven't heard Manu Chao before, get ready for a trip around the world with an artist that incarnates creative freedom, and for the most fun you've had in a long time, listening to music. If you listened to his first solo album, 'Clandestino,' you'll find some of the tracks in this album to bear a resemblance with it, but don't be wrong: this guy is reinvents himself once and again, deconstructing and rebuilding his own past work. He touches the most serious topics (Mad Cow disease and promiscuity just to name two), but in a very fun way, just like he did when he was lead singer of Mano Negra (a band definitely worth listening). He also continues to borrow from many languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, English), rhythms and styles that you'll find yourself following a reggae, after having listened to a song that closely resembles the tune in a musical box. My favorite from the album, "Me Gustas Tu".

With Proxima Estacion Esperanza, Manu Chao delivers another great CD. Happier, at times funkier than the melancholic Clandestino, Proxima Estacion sometimes echoes the Mano Negra years (especially with the ska number "Promiscuity" and the jazzy "Trapped by Love") while maintaining the simple, minimalistic and acoustic feel used in Clandestino. Manu Chao, a collage artist, samples anything, from Cuban radio programs to french documentaries to cell phone and fax sounds, mixing all of this with his songs. Some of the samples are new, some are recycled, but, hey, that's what a collage artist does, he recycles stuff. For example, Mr. Bobby and the Homens' music is the same as King of Bongo. But he makes enough changes to make these sounds sound fresh again. But the winners in Proxima Estacion are "Merry Blues", portuñol songs "Bixo do coco/El dorado" and the Algerian influenced "Denia".Being Manu Chao, everybody expects him to sing...Read more

I'm a huge fan of Mano Negra and Manu Chao and it's been interesting to see how the sound has evolved over the years. "Clandestino" is an immense solo album, and "Proxima Estacion:Esperanza", while lacking some of the spiritual depth of the first effort, is still a great album exploring different themes. The whole CD sounds like a journey, and is a great CD to add to your road trip collection. Manu definitely takes a lighter approach mood-wise with this album compared to "Clandestino", which is refreshing - otherwise we'd have "Clandestino II". Still, the tracks are standouts in their own Manu way. "Denia" isn't full of Middle Eastern instruments, yet with the minimal vocals, Arabic calling, smooth guitar and steam whistles somehow I feel like I'm on a train in Morrocco anyway. "Papito" is nothing but silliness, and there's nothing wrong with that. Not every song has to be talking about the plight of the world for him to...Read more