Neighborhood

The Neighborhood is the eighth album by the Mexican American rock group Los Lobos. It was released in 1990 and includes contributions from, among others, Levon Helm and John Hiatt. [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand]

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.--David Cantwell