An album cut for local consumption in East L.A. in the late Seventies. 

 Packed with seven sweaty, endearing dance tunes, it ranges from the classic rock & roll of Richie Valens’ “Come On, Let’s Go” to the spirited Tex-Mex two-step of “Anselma.” Still, the accordion-spiked blues of “Let’s Say Goodnight” most clearly defines the band. 

 The rangy eclecticism of Los Lobos’ first full album, How Will the Wolf Survive?, distilled the potential hinted at by the band's early recordings. 

 The group broadened its lyrical perspective, moving from the realm of everyday romance to more explicitly ethical and political ground. But the big-picture efforts often seem forced, and apart from “One Time One Night,” which strongly recalls Dave Alvin’s later writing for the Blasters. 

 With this soundtrack album for the Ritchie Valens biopic, Los Lobos wound up with a chart-topping single (the title tune) and a second Top Forty hit (“Come On, Let’s Go”). La Bamba manages to convey all of Los Lobos’ appeal without any of its essence. 

 Perhaps as a response to the success of the La Bamba soundtrack, La Pistola y el Coraz"n focused exclusively on Mexican traditional tunes, avoiding rock & roll entirely.  

 Apparently reinvigorated, the band sounds stronger than ever on The Neighborhood. Some of that may have to do with the use of studio drummers to shore up Louis Pérez’s sometimes shaky time-keeping, but mostly it’s the material, which finds the band showing all its strengths. 

 Kiko, produced by the team of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, broadened the band’s palette considerably, transforming its blues impulses and bringing a dreamy sonic gauze to the wistful beauty of “Kiko and the Lavender Moon.” 

 Of the anthologies, the two-disc Just Another Band From East L.A. makes a reasonable hits package, but presents a fairly shallow views of the band.  

 Los Lobos continued a consistent run on Colossal Head – “Mas y Mas" is as good as anything the band ever cut. 

 This Time continued the successful collaboration with Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, with frequently stunning results. 

 The four-CD El Cancionero–Mas y Mas is the best Los Lobos compilation. It includes all the essentials as well as some well-chosen rarities and samples from the band’s various spin-off projects.  

 Good Morning Aztlán found the wolves drawing from an even wider range of South American influences (as on “Luz de Mi Vida” and “Malaqué”) without relinquishing its country and blues chops.  

 If that seemed to suggest the group was pulling away from its Americano roots, The Ride clarified matters, using a string of celebrity cameos–by Bobby Womack, Elvis Costello, Mavis Staples, Richard Thompson, and Rubén Blades, among others–to add sparkle to the material.  

 As if to offset the crunchy Fillmore set, the corresponding, self-released Acoustic En Vivo showcases the band unplugged en espa–ol, furiously plucking in the same Mexican folk vein that made Pistola an interesting, but not wholly satisfying, detour.  

 Their first live album, Live At The Fillmore showcases the band at their burliest, leaning into blues-rock with athletic zeal and treating the other material like one big rave-up (save the fairly cheesy cover of “What’s Goin On”).  

 This is a meditation on the triumph and trials of Mexican-American immigrants. Los Lobos bring their storytelling ballads to Springsteen highs and their darkest blues to Tom Waits-ian arenas of disorientation, adding Kiko-style touches like ambient noise and errant percussion.  

 The one-disc Wolf Tracks gathers most of the "hits," but in all is a pretty shallow summary of a wildly varied career.  

 Los Lobos Goes Disney is kids album–it’s unlikely enough that it exists, and it’s more unlikely that it’s good. But good it is, juicing long-sterile Disney songs with either new muscle (a frenetic “Heigh-Ho”) or new heartbreak (a tender “I Will Go Sailing No More”).