\nBy The Light Of The Moon<\/i> was Los Lobos’ second LP, following
\non the heels of their critically acclaimed debut
\nHow Will The Wolf Survive?<\/i> However, critics at the time gave
\nthis 1987 album mixed reviews stating that Los Lobos fell into the
\ndreaded “sophomore slump.” I am here to tell you that I disagree
\nand that this is one fine collection of songs. Sure, it has its
\nweaknesses which I will go into later, but it has many strengths
\nand if you are into roots-oriented rock, then this album is well
\nworth your time.<\/p>\n
Los Lobos has two distinct songwriting teams: lead
\nsinger\/guitarist David Hidalgo and drummer Louie Perez write the
\nsocially concious ballads on the album, and the other lead
\nsinger\/guitarist Cesar Rosas writes the fun rockers. This sort of
\nying\/yang is set up right from the start of the album which opens
\nup with the countryish “One Time, One Night” followed by the rocker
\n“Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes.” Compared with the first album,
\nBy The Light Of The Moon<\/i> is more ballad-oriented, but yet
\nthe rockers that are here have got a grittier feel to them.<\/p>\n
The fact that there are more ballads is part of the problem with
\nthis album. I am not saying I don’t like ballads, but I do not
\nthink that Hidalgo and Perez were up to writing this many. They
\nseem to be trying too hard to match the success of their song “Will
\nThe Wolf Survive?” Sometimes they connect, but other times they do
\nnot.<\/p>\n
On the first side of
\nBy The Light Of The Moon<\/i>, “One Time, One Night” has its
\nmoments but lacks the urgency of their better songs. The same can
\nbe said for “Is This All There Is”. Producer T-Bone Burnett seemed
\nto force Hidalgo and Perez to write a rocker and their only one on
\nthis album, “All I Wanted To Do Was Dance” seems half-hearted.
\nRosas fares much better on side one with “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes”.
\nThis song, co-written with Burnett rocks like a combination of
\nfellow 80’s Los Angeles bands, The Blasters and X. Rosas handles
\nthe vocals on his one ballad, the traditional Mexican song “Prenda
\nDel Alma” with the tenderness it requires.<\/p>\n
Now if you’ve read this far, you must be thinking that I am
\nagreeing with the other critics. True, side one is a bit
\nunderwhelming, but side two more than makes up for it. We start
\nthis side in a blaze of glory with “Set Me Free (Rosa Lee)” which
\nmixes Tex Mex with a Motown groove and the combination works
\nbrilliantly. This is followed by “The Hardest Time”, a touching
\nballad about a woman whose husband has left her and their baby. I
\nlike the George Harrison-esque riff on this song. “My Baby’s Gone”
\nis an energetic rocker that would not be out of place on a Stevie
\nRay Vaughan disc. I would hesitate to say Rosas plays guitar as
\nwell as Vaughan, but his playing here is loose and he is obviously
\nhaving a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
The next song “River Of Fools” is a revelation. This is a
\npoetic, heartfelt, acoustic mumber that I think is one of their
\nbest songs. “The Mess We’re In,” on the other hand, is the only
\nfalse step on side two, as it is a little too preachy for my
\ntastes. The album ends with “Tears Of God,” a gospel-tinged tune
\nnot unlike Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” It
\ndoes not quite have the showstopping ending of that song, but it is
\nstill an effective way to close the album.<\/p>\n
It is so important to start an album on the right track. Many
\nalbums have faltered toward the end and people do not seem to mind,
\nbut
\nBy The Light Of The Moon<\/i> makes the mistake of faltering at
\nthe beginning, so the perception is that this album is a failure.
\nThat is really a shame because
\nBy The Light Of The Moon<\/i> has too many wonderful moments to
\npass up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":24906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5812],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36111","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-los-lobos","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36111"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36111"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}