Monterey County Weekly Review of T&C
DiscSpace
Sep 14, 2006
LOS LOBOS | The Town and the City | Hollywood Records
Over their 33 years, Los AngelesÂ’ Los Lobos has been many bands.
TheyÂ’ve been a group of Americana music aficionados that play
straight blues, soul and country numbers. TheyÂ’ve been a collective
of adventuresome musicians recording soundscapes with surreal lyrics—
a phase explored further on their superb side projects as the Latin
Playboys. And, at other times, theyÂ’re just a Chicano band hoping to
get the party started with their cumbias and covers of Ritchie
ValensÂ’ tunes.
On their 13th album, The Town and the City, which is one of their
best studio efforts of the last decade, Los Lobos wallow in their
diversity. The opener titled “The Valley” has an experimental sound
due to the trackÂ’s effects-laden guitars, which sound like laser
beams. With its percussion and dark lyrical content, “Hold On” could
be a number off of Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs, while “The Road to Gila
Bend” is a fuzzy country rock stomp that would make Neil Young proud.
Most of the latter part of the CD finds Los Lobos taking a more
straightforward approach to their songs, from the electric blues of
“Two Dogs and a Bone” to “Little Things,” which sounds like a classic
rock nugget.
ItÂ’s a real testament to the band that none of these genre excursions
sound forced, and in the end, The Town and The City seems to have a
little bit of something for all different types of Los Lobos fans. —
Stuart Thornton