Los Lobos are at it again with their latest, The Town and the City. Mostly a disappointment, the album’s only saving graces are its three songs in Spanish with a Latin beat, “Chuco’s Cumbia,” “Luna,” and “No Puedo Más.”
While there is still a slight Latin flair to the rest of their songs, many of them, especially “The Road to Gila Bend,” are simply painful to listen to.
For the most part, it sounds as though Los Lobos have attempted to modernize their sound in an effort to keep competitive with popular music. Unfortunately, they’re not very good at it. The instrumental side of the music poorly jives together in what sounds like several different musicians playing completely different songs and then slapping it all together with little direction.
The Town and the City features garbled sound effects of what sound like a dog barking in “The City,” followed by similar effects in “The Town.” It’s enough to move one to tears, but only because it won’t stop.
The song “Hold On” features lyrics such as “killing myself to survive,” which is cliche enough to cause some to kill themselves in order to survive the album.
While Los Lobos might be interesting enough to pick up and examine at a record store, anyone careless enough to do so will want to wash their hands afterward.