Roy Trakin – HITS magazine Review of “The Town And The City”

Los Lobos, The Town and The City (Hollywood): This under-appreciated band from East L.A., going on 23 years since their debut album, return with their 13th studio effort on Sept. 12, reason enough to declare them a national treasure. The disc is being touted as the successor to the experimentation of 1992’s Kiko, and it doesn’t disappoint, carving a narrative of immigration and assimilation while still maintaining its unique cultural identity. David Hidalgo’s heartfelt soul illuminates the beginning of the journey on “The Valley,” which leads into the deep blues of “Hold On,” a depiction of a new world’s dangerous temptations before giving way to Cesar Rosas’ joyous “Chuco’s Cumbia,” a tribute to the zoot suit past. “Little Things,” with its nod to Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale,” marks the band’s roots in British rock as it notes life’s smaller pleasures, while “Don’t Ask Why” is an R&B-soaked homage to the Grateful Dead, and “No Puedo Mas” comes off as a reggae-tinged tip of the cap to fellow Latino rockers Santana. “The City” and “The Town” form bookends to the Lobos sensibility, with one foot in the brave new world of urban chaos, the other in the enduring pull of their ancestral homeland, standing for both America’s promise and its perils, a living, breathing example of how we are all just immigrants searching for a place to call our own. —RT