14. Latin Playboys—s/t (1994)
The specter of death has caused many a person to reflect upon the life that they have lived. That looming inevitability up there behind nighttime clouds may drive you down into your basement one evening, among the cobwebs and naked lightbulbs, to rummage through the collected detritus of your life, seeking nostalgia. You might find a musty box of childhood photos down there. You might pick up and strum your ancient, horribly out-of-tune guitar. You may tear up as you inspect your broken, faded, old toys.
This album sounds exactly like what one of those dusty basement journeys feels like. It began life when David Hidalgo of Los Lobos was recording some rough ideas for new songs on a four-track. After a while he realized that a bunch of what he was was putting on tape, as much as he liked it, didn't really fit well with the style of music his band played so the idea of a little side project began to rear its head. After recruiting fellow Los Lobos member Louie Pérez and frequent Los Lobos producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, this self-titled album was released, built largely from those original four-track recordings.
Quirky and lo-fi to it's core, this small, spare album never insists on its importance, remaining subdued and contemplative throughout, but it's a beautiful and heartfelt piece of work through and through. It's quite eclectic as well. It dabbles in experimentalism frequently, though it's most noticeable on "Viva La Raza", "Mira!" and "Pink Steps". It rocks out a bit on "New Zandu" and "Chinese Surprise". And it explores warm, rootsy material on tracks like "If" and "Manifold De Amour". All of this done with a distinct latin flavor and consistently brilliant percussion.
Here's my favorite song off the album, "Crayon Sun" (ignore the silly pictures):