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: • "Rainin In Paradize", "El Kitapena", "Siberia" and "Mama Cuchara" all feature the same backing track, which is slightly heavier and rockier than the usual Manu Chao output, with distorted guitars played by
Madjid Fahem. • "El Hoyo" and "Panik Panik" are similar in style to the above song, but the chords are slightly different. • Other tracks on the album are just coupled by using the same music: "13 Días" and "Besoin de la Lune"; "Politik Kills" and "Mundorévès"; "A Cosa" and "Amalucada Vida"; "The Bleedin Clown" and "Y Ahora Qué?", which at the same time have the same lead guitar melody as "Tristeza Maleza", but on a different chord. • "Piccola Radiolina" is an edited instrumental version of "Mala Fama". • "Soñé Otro Mundo" is a short instrumental excerpt from "Otro Mundo". • "Me Llaman Calle" and "La Vida Tómbola" feature the same chords and the same accompaniment pattern, although the music is not exactly identical. A similar "recycling" process also affects some of the lyrics. "Tristeza Maleza" features the repeated phrase "Infinita Tristeza", from the album
Próxima Estación: Esperanza; 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" (again with different music), 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 (that performance was never officially released). 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. ==Track listing==