New Album: Los Lobos - The Town And The City

Most people only know Los Lobos from their admittedly amazing early 90s cover of Richie Vallens' classic La Bamba, which is clearly one of the best songs ever written EVER. No joke, it's AMAZING. However this is sort of unfortunate, as the band's long history and discography is forgotten in the wake of their one massive hit. The band formed in 1973, and despite beginning with rather a conventional latino sound, soon developed, and are still developing, into a band that encompass elements of Jazz, Rock, R&B, folk, the blues, country and just about every other American roots music under the sun (and probably some non American stuff too!)

Their latest album is the rather critically acclaimed The Town And The City, which was released last September and to be honest happened to pass me by. However I finally got around to listening to it today, and liked it very very much. The blues element is pretty obvious throughout, and works really well (especially on the lovely blues shuffle of Little Things, and elsewhere the band sparkle perhaps more strongly than the bands they influenced (The Meat Puppets are an obvious example). In parts we have Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones style funky jazz blasts, and elsewhere we have songs that resonate with history in the same way that the last few Dylan records have. The whole album is well worth a listen for any fan of the multitude of genres I listed above.

Los Lobos - Hold On
Los Lobos - Little Things
Los Lobos - Two Dogs And A Bone