The Neighborhood (album)

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The Neighborhood
The Neighborhood - Los Lobos.jpg
Studio album by
Los Lobos
ReleasedSeptember 4, 1990 (1990-09-04)
Studio Ocean Way, Los Angeles, California
Sunset Sound, Hollywood, California
Genre Roots rock
Chicano rock
R&B
Tex-Mex
Heartland rock
Length44:52
Label Slash Records, WB Records [1]
Producer Larry Hirsch, Los Lobos [2]
Los Lobos chronology
La pistola y el corazón
(1988)		The Neighborhood
(1990)		 Kiko
(1992)

The Neighborhood is the fifth album by the rock band Los Lobos. [3] [4] It was released in 1990 and includes contributions from, among others, Levon Helm and John Hiatt. [1] [5]

Contents

The album peaked at No. 103 on the Billboard 200 in September 1990. [6]

Production

The album followed a period of writer's block, brought on by the success of "La Bamba," and a confusion about what musical direction to go in. [7] The New York Times noted a more prominent blues influence, "in different moods and textures." [8] Some tracks employed session drummers in place of Louie F. Pérez, Jr. [9]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Chicago Sun-Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [10]
Chicago Tribune Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [11]
Entertainment Weekly B+ [12]
Los Angeles Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [13]
NME 7/10 [14]
Orlando Sentinel Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [15]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [16]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Spin Alternative Record Guide 7/10 [17]

Reviewing The Neighborhood for the Chicago Tribune , Greg Kot said that Los Lobos had "translated" their mastery of blues, country, R&B and Mexican folk "into 13 songs of startling simplicity and power", describing the album as "East L.A. soul music, played and sung with utter conviction." [11] Chicago Sun-Times critic Don McLeese stated that it "confirms that the music of Los Lobos has deeper dimensions than the good-time revivalism of 'La Bamba'"; [10] in Rolling Stone , McLeese noted the album's "simplicity and understatement" and summarized it as "a bringing-it-all-back-home affair" which "finds a spiritual dimension, a sense of wonder in the course of everyday life." [16] For The Washington Post , Geoffrey Himes wrote that "the album is a bold claim by these second-generation immigrants that they are Americans, and that all of America's culture belongs to them." [1] Ira Robbins of Entertainment Weekly lauded the band's musical versatility and concluded that "despite the disconcerting lack of focus, what's in this musical melting pot is mighty tasty." [12]

Los Angeles Times journalist Chris Willman credited Los Lobos with maintaining their "edge" throughout The Neighborhood, even in moments that "are so outrightly sentimental that they would be sheer Capra-corn in almost any other group's hands". [13] While finding the band's songwriting not at par with "their stylistic mastery", Gavin Martin of NME deemed the album "Los Lobos' most successful collection to date". [14] Critic Robert Christgau, however, merely gave it a grade of "neither". [18]

Retrospectively, AllMusic's Mark Deming called The Neighborhood "a genuine step forward for a great band, as well as the jumping-off point to their most experimental period." [2] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide , J. D. Considine commented that the album showed Los Lobos sounding "reinvigorated" and "stronger than ever" with material that played to the band's musical strengths. [9] Trouser Press praised it as "exciting, evocative and highly satisfying." [19]

Track listing

All songs written by David K. Hidalgo and Louie F. Pérez, Jr., except where noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Down on the Riverbed" 4:05
2."Emily" 3:49
3."I Walk Alone" 3:00
4."Angel Dance" 3:13
5."Little John of God" 2:19
6."Deep Dark Hole" 2:24
7."Georgia Slop"(Jimmy McCracklin)2:45
8."I Can't Understand"(Cesar J. Rosas, Willie Dixon)4:00
9."The Giving Tree" 3:07
10."Take My Hand" 4:45
11."Jenny's Got a Pony" 4:03
12."Be Still" 3:34
13."The Neighborhood" 4:07

Personnel

Additional personnel

Production

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Himes, Geoffrey (September 26, 1990). "Los Lobos Music As Melting Pot". The Washington Post . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Deming, Mark. "The Neighborhood – Los Lobos". AllMusic . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  3. ↑ Buckley, Peter (November 2, 2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. ISBN   9781843531050 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Deming, Mark. "Los Lobos". AllMusic . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Wolf Pack". The New Yorker . April 15, 2001. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Los Lobos". Billboard.
  7. ↑ Washburn, Jim (October 17, 1990). "Seeds Yield Album for Los Lobos". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  8. ↑ Holden, Stephen (November 6, 1990). "Los Lobos' Latino Blues". The New York Times . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 Considine, J. D. (2004). "Los Lobos". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp.  495–496. ISBN   0-7432-0169-8.
  10. 1 2 McLeese, Don (September 3, 1990). "Los Lobos move beyond 'La Bamba'" . Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  11. 1 2 Kot, Greg (September 6, 1990). "Los Lobos: The Neighborhood (Slash)". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  12. 1 2 Robbins, Ira (September 7, 1990). "The Neighborhood". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  13. 1 2 Willman, Chris (September 2, 1990). "Los Lobos 'The Neighborhood' Slash/Warner Bros". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  14. 1 2 Martin, Gavin (September 15, 1990). "Los Lobos: The Neighbourhood". NME . p. 38.
  15. ↑ Gettelman, Parry (October 26, 1990). "Los Lobos". Orlando Sentinel . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  16. 1 2 McLeese, Don (October 4, 1990). "The Neighborhood". Rolling Stone . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  17. ↑ Weisbard, Eric (1995). "Los Lobos". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 228–229. ISBN   0-679-75574-8.
  18. ↑ Christgau, Robert (2000). "Los Lobos: The Neighborhood". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 182. ISBN   0-312-24560-2 . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  19. ↑ Robbins, Ira; Levine, Robert. "Los Lobos". Trouser Press . Retrieved November 2, 2020.
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