''Latin Playboys'' is the debut album of
experimental rock band
Latin Playboys
Latin Playboys was a musical group formed by David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez, Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, active in the 1990s.
History
The band began with a series of demo recordings made by Hidalgo on a home cassette tape four-track machine. T ...
.
Critical reception
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
of ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' named the album the best release of 1994 and described it as "impressionistic fragments coalescing into a self-sustaining aural counterreality."
Writing for ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'', Joshua Klein called the album a "casual masterpiece" consisting of "found sounds, low-fidelity recording techniques, distorted drum loops, deep-dungeon blues, fragmented guitar parts, and some gorgeous songs." In his
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
review,
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.
Life and writing
Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...
stated that the album's "lyrics and song structures are almost impressionistic in tone, creating an effect similar to listening to your car radio as stations drift in and out of reach while you drive along the Mexican border."
Christgau later named it among his 10 best albums from the 1990s.
Track listing
All songs written by
David Hidalgo
David Kent Hidalgo (born October 6, 1954, in Los Angeles.) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his work with the band Los Lobos. Hidalgo frequently plays musical instruments such as accordion, violin, 6-string banjo, cello, requin ...
and
Louie Pérez
Louis Frausto Pérez, Jr. (born January 29, 1953) is an American songwriter, percussionist and guitarist for Los Lobos and Latin Playboys.
Pérez started with Los Lobos playing primarily jarana (a small Mexican guitar) and singing. He is one of ...
.
# "Viva la Raza" – 2:45
# "Ten Believers" – 3:17
# "Chinese Surprize" – 3:07
# "Mira!" – 1:22
# "Manifold de Amour" – 2:02
# "New Zandu" – 3:11
# "Rudy's Party" – 2:28
# "If" – 1:41
# "Same Brown Earth" – 3:45
# "Lagoon" – 2:24
# "Gone" – 2:51
# "Crayon Sun" – 3:04
# "Pink Steps" – 2:07
# "Forever Night Shade Mary" – 3:05
Personnel
*
Bob Ludwig
Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...
– mastering
*John Paterno – mixing
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Latin Playboys (Album)
1994 debut albums
Latin Playboys albums
Slash Records albums
Warner Records albums