REVIEWS:
Post your comments about Los Lobos
(reviewed by Kevin Baker)
Si, muchacho. Estoy criticando un album de un conjunto de musica Latina. Los Lobos son de origen Mexicano y viven in Los Angeles. Dangit, I don't know how to do accents and tildes with my keyboard. Guess I better switch back to my own boring native tongue....grrr. For those of you who "no habla," I said I'm reviewing an album by a Latino music group, Los Lobos. They're from L.A., and of the Mexican persuasion. You might know them from the movie La Bamba, for which they provided much of the soundtrack. However, they're a fine band in their own right and by no means limited to Ritchie Valens covers. This is a good thing, because if the limit of your talent is Ritche Valens covers, you're screwed seeing as how the good Senor Valens died before he could leave behind much in the way of musical offerings.
Now, I live in Texas. I worked for a few weeks at what amounted to being a Hispanic grocery store in an extremely Hispanic neighborhood. I'm bilingual (working on trilingual---learning Afrikaans of all languages!), and I know a lot of Mexicans. I've been to Mexico---the real Mexico, not resort towns. You know, the border town communities made up of shacks as far as the eye can see and the mercados where all the shops sell the same touristy junk to the gringos who come across the river in search of bargains. I've seen live mariachi bands, eaten REAL Mexican food (not just the Tex-Mex stuff that gets called Mexican food in the states), and even been asked by a Mexican if I was in fact Hispanic. I say all of this to prove one point----I know my Mexican culture, dangit. I'm not just some gringo who picked up something from the Tejano section of the local Hastings to look multicultural.
I'm actually a gringo who picked it up in the Rock section of the local Hastings. However, I do genuinely enjoy Tejano/Norteno/Latino music, and by all accounts, this is a faboo musical offering if you dig that kinda thing. I must agree. You see, this is Los Lobos' attempt at getting back to their roots. They are primarily a rock band; they do rock music for rock music listeners. But by golly, they love their roots from Jalisco or Guerrero or wherever their forebears crossed the border (legally or otherwise) from! So one day they just picked up some of their favorite Mexican traditional instruments (classical guitar, accordion, requinto jarocho, jarana, etc.) and played some of their favorite traditional Mexican songs, plus two ditties of their own composition.
Now, the average non-Spanish speaking music fan is probably wondering how such an album could possibly be appealing. Well, I'll tell you......*large chorus breaks out into singing 'He's going to tell, he's going to tell' while the King calls for everyone to stop singing and Sir Lancelot swings pathetically from the ceiling* This stuff is catchy. Dang catchy. Plus, the style is so.....special. You want to dance, you want to sing, you want to clap. Then you read the lyrics....you get some folky goofiness, but....there's a lot of lovelorn stuff here. Doesn't at all seem to match the happiness and joy in the music---or does it? Un enigma, no?
This is a dang short listen, too...less than a half an hour of music, which I personally think is a shame---I could go for more of this personally. In that short amount of time, you get a powerful lot of stuff, though....upbeat music, slow ballads. Ok, you get upbeat music and slow ballads....that IS the long and short of it. The very short of it......27 minutes is incredibly dinky for an album. In conclusion, this is a bloody good listen. Be brave and experiment---you'll never know unless you give this stuff a shot. Goodness knows I wouldn't have seen my white butt listening to a Tejano album a few years ago! But I am, and I am loving it. If you dig well-played acoustic, folk-oriented/influenced music, this'll surely tickle your fancy. Give it a try!
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