Listening Notes: Los Lobos, Archie Bronson Outfit

Los Lobos - The Neighborhood, Kiko

I was looking to get CDs of How Will the Wolf Survive? and By the Light of the Moon (and, really, does anyone need my recommendation for either of those?) and the only way was through a cheap British import that included the first EP and The Neighborhood and Kiko. I'd never heard Kiko entirely before - it came out the year I was between degrees and mostly unemployed. It's a little too atmospheric for my taste. The surprise is The Neighborhood, which I remembered as being too much like a conscious attempt to be like The Band - Levon Helm sings on a song etc. It doesn't sound that way at all. It just seems like a natural continuation of the first two albums. (Okay, there was a Spanish language album in there, plus the La Bamba soundtrack, but you know...) The songs aren't quite as good, but they're good enough. I'll take it over Kiko any day.

Archie Bronson Outfit - Coconut

What a lot of clatter. And forget trying to figure out what they're saying - it might as well be in Finnish. Yet, when I don't think, when I let it wash over me, it's fun for minutes at a time. Then the clatter starts up again.