Manu Chao - La Radiolina

Manu Chao is back, and world music fans as unlikely as Robbie Williams have waited with bated breath for his post-'War on Terror' album. The good news is that he is as energetic and self-referential as ever; the bad, that these traits are beginning to wear rather thin. It is hardly surprising that the heaviest influence comes from American international relations - laid bare most explicitly on the pop-punky Politik Kills and Rainin' in Paradize - yet unfortunately, his English-language tracks are the weakest on this album, which suffers additionally from its 20-track length. It is a significant departure from his previous solo offerings, drawing more from American rock than Hispanic folk music. Accordingly, La Radiolina begins to sound more like a tribute band than the mature product of the man himself. While the radio-friendly style of this album is likely to attract a wider audience, existing fans may well be turned off by the cost of such populism to the music itself. [Lucy Weir]