NEWS / Sep 28, 2006

Not many bands make it to the thirty-year mark, and of those that do,
fewer still make it with any vitality intact. Los Lobos are the rare
exception.

True, the band seems to have been in a holding pattern recently, what
with a record focused on collaborations (2004s The Ride, a covers EP
(The Rides accompanying Ride This disc), and a live album (2005s
Live at the Fillmore)oh, and a best-of disc earlier this year. But
their latest, The Town and the City, stands as one of the bands best
efforts, even if the bands success initially works against them.

The problem with Los Lobos, at this point, is that theyve
basically spoiled us, making it easy to take them for granted.
Fourteen years past what will probably stand as their watershed
moment, 1992s Kiko, Los Lobos have continued mining a rich vein of
traditional forms, rock, experimentation, and soulful lyricism. If
efforts like Colossal Head and This Time seemed like weaker efforts,
its largely because Kiko left little room for improvement (and yeah,
maybe because, here and there, the experimentation didnt always
coalesce into solid songs).

So when you listen to The Town and the City, its tempting to call
the album more of the same: Los Lobos doing what they do in their
typical unassuming manner. There arent any songs that initially seem
like theyre going to dethrone Just a Man, I Walk Alone, Mas y
Mas, or Kiko and the Lavender Moon as Los Lobos classicsjust one
solid song after another.

After a bit, though, the records darker feel begins to make itself
known. The Valley tells of those who work through the day for as
long as we are able; the backing arrangement has a gentle, pastoral
lope, but a keening guitar line arcs through, sometimes cutting into
the foreground, as if to underscore the hardscrabble life depicted in
the song. Hold On goes it one better, backing lyrics like Hold on
to every breath / And if I make it sunrise, do it all over again /
Now Im killin myself just to keep alive / Killin myself to
survive with a measured rhythm, like a clock ticking towards the end
of a long day. The Road to Gila Bend, with overloaded electric
guitar crackling like its hooked to an amp via an electric fence,
tells the tale of a breakneck run across the border.

At this point, three songs in, it sounds like Los Lobos might be
making an album specifically about immigration. But by albums end,
it sounds like theyre more concerned with the equally complicated
experience of simply living, whether its in a small village back
home or in an American cityreally, the same themes theyve been
addressing since The Neighborhood and before. The snarling guitar
bounce of Two Dogs and a Bone accompanies a mothers practical
advice to her two sons, while the wistful Little Things, full of
regret over lost focus in modern times, simultaneously evokes Marvin
Gayes Whats Going On and Procol Harums A Whiter Shade of Pale.
The City, decorated with broad, cosmopolitan chord progressions and
sonic swirls, follows the sentiment of cmon lets go out tonight
through never-sleeping nighttime streets.

The disc closes, though, with The Town, which may turn out to be
one of Los Lobos very best tracks. A counterpoint to the evening
adrenaline of The City, The Town opens with gunshots in the city
night, and the narrators conviction that things are better back
home, a place he sees whenever he closes his eyes. Its evocative
enough on its own, especially as a conclusion to an album this
strong, but the lead guitar work puts it over the top. A nuanced,
fluid mixture of sympathethic chords, jazzy double-stops, and bluesy
wails, its perhaps the best Los Lobo guitar work since Just a
Mans solo sounded like the band were opening up actual veins in
order to let the torment out.

If youve kind of let your attention to Los Lobos slide, The Town and
the City marks the perfect opportunity to get back into the fold.
With every passing year, it seems like the band is less and less
interested with peeling the pain from the roadhouse walls, but with
age and wisdom comes something subtler, and just as long-lasting.

RATING: 7 on a scale of 10
28 September 2006

Andrew Gilstrap of PopMatters gives T&C 7 out of 10 stars!