469. Manu Chao, "Clandestino"

 


Remember when World Music was a thing? When you couldn't go into your local On My Grind or Hallowed Grounds or Spit Roasters without hearing the plaintive wail and vaguely reggaeish beat of a young multiculti crooner from Senegal or Madagascar or born in Punta Cana to parents from the Oblortski Autonomous Zone?  That is this album.  It is so World Musicy that it feels bad for me to say I did not love this album.  But now I see where that "Somebody You Used to Know" guy got his idea from!

The late 90's, what a time, I tell you.  At this point in time I was living in Santa Cruz during a confusing and not really great time in my life and roughly half the dudes on Pacific looked like Manu in his festive garb above.  The other half looked like REALLY ANGRY tweaked out surfers because that's what they were.  I almost got beat up in a dive bar by and angry surfer because I made the mistake of thinking I had the next pool game but IT'S MY GAME BRO ok ok I don't really care.

Another time a friend of mine was helping me move and we were driving out of the parking lot of a grocery store and this guy yells at us from across the lot "ARE YOU LOOKING ME?  WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT????" and we were like "What?"  He should have listened to a little Manu Chao and gotten a message of peace and understanding instead of smoking all that crystal!

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