Los Lobos - The Neighborhood (1990)

The Neighborhood continues Los Lobos' gift for melding American musics--R&B, conjunto, C&W, rock, and the rest--into a sound that's entirely its own. The longing swing of "Emily" is kick-started by driving fiddle, the delicate "Little John of God" features the Arkansas drawl of Levon Helm, and "Jenny's Got a Pony" sounds like a house partyin' blend of Mitch Ryder and Gary Bonds. The best of the bunch, "Down by the Riverbed," employs striking imagery ("A monster cloud like a big black hand") to propel a narrative about the fear of commitment. The record weakens near the end, due mainly to self-consciously poetic lyrics, but The Neighborhood is still a place worth spending some time.