It is strange to call your anniversary album The Long Goodbye, unless David Hidalgo and Louie Perez call it quits after forty years of working together of course. The frontmen of Los Lobos and Latin Playboys are still full of energy, as the recently released and well-received Los Lobos Goes Disney proves. This album is mainly intended to show what it was all about sometime in 1970: the songs. Since
… Hidalgo and Perez are both multi-instrumentalists, and have worked with big names like Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Roy Orbison, it could easily be forgotten that they can also write great songs. The Long Goodbye focuses only on the creative qualities of the duo. Most of the songs tend to arrangements for Los Lobos, while Cure For Love is clearly reminiscent of Latin Playboys. The purest and most special is the bare Take My Hand. Only vocals and guitar without any frills, from which the musicality still radiates. (JE)more
