Los Lobos-- This Time

(Hollywood)

If anyone wanted to make the claim that Los Lobos have been (North) America’s most consistent rock band over the last 15 years, they’d get no argument from your humble columnist.

This Time is the 10th release in the group’s prolific and expansive discography-- an assured, confident-sounding set of Tex-Mex exotica and funky rockabilly that contains at least one classic chugger, the philosophical "Why We Wish," and the most subtle single of the year, the title track. While it’s not quite Kiko, the band’s 1992 stunner (one of the best discs of the decade), it’s one more colorful off ramp in Los Lobos’ artistic triptych.

--- Don Harrison