Los Lobos - The Ride (2004)

After hitting a creative peak in the early '90s, Los Lobos settled into a decade-long groove that was perhaps a little too comfortable. The band's twelfth studio CD, The Ride, tries to shake things up a bit, and mostly succeeds by pairing the group with a string of collaborators similar to Carlos Santana's Supernatural. Only instead of the young hit-makers that propelled Santana's comeback, The Ride matches Los Lobos with early influences (Bobby Womack, Little Willie G) and long-time friends (Dave Alvin, Elvis Costello).

The experimentalism that fueled 1992's Kiko can be found here on a couple of tracks--most notably "Kitate," a deliriously wiggy collaboration with Tom Waits and Martha Gonzales of Quetzal--but generally the focus is on blues, soul, and roots rock. Surprisingly, some of the strongest performances are new versions of songs previously recorded by Lobos: Costello helps the band re-invent "Matter of Time" as a piano and pedal-steel guitar ballad; Mavis Staples turns the folk-blues lament of "Someday" into rousing Stax soul/gospel; and Womack segues effortlessly from "Wicked Rain" into his '70s blaxploitation classic, "Across 110th Street." Of the newer material, the band shines brightest on "La Venganza de Los Pelados," a Latin dance workout with Café Tacuba, and the bluesy soul of "Chains of Love," which shreds 12-bar formula by including a 90-second violin solo. The latter is a tribute to '50s rock & rollers Don and Dewey, proving that the best road to the future is sometimes paved by revisiting the distant past.