oh the wonderful sound of it

manu chao is a genius.

if you have never heard manu chao, and you have even the slightest respect and admiration for musical talent and creativity, go download proxima estacion: esperanza, right now. right. now. do it. do it.

for the first time, i thought to look up the lyrics to this album--i guess i just assumed that they wouldn't be available for some reason. he sings in english, french, spanish, portuguese, and arabic. the site i looked at (here) has both the original lyrics and the translations into english. denia has always been a personal favorite, and i love it even more now that i know (a) that it's in arabic, and (b) what it means.

the album is really a work of art. when i ripped it onto my work computer, i actually considered merging all the tracks into one on itunes so that there wouldn't be the silly little breaks between songs that are meant to flow together. it's like a painting. it flows from start to finish, it has themes and substance, and little audio images pop up over and over. he purposely uses bad french (his native language) to imitate an american tourist in a song! he sings in five languages! FIVE! i know like seven people who can even speak five languages, and this guy writes and sings... oh man. i could go on and on and on. i have had this album for a couple of years now and i wouldn't be surprised if i've listened to it over 200 times, start to finish. it's as close to a perfect musical work as i've ever heard.

incredible.

*swoon*

manu chao, marry me.