I own only one Los Lobos album, and that’s 1992’s Kiko, a rich and wide-ranging record that is widely considered their best.

More than ten years ago, when I first wrote about Kiko on the blog, commenter Phil made this suggestion: “Do yourself a favor and pickup Will the Wolf Survive and By the Light of the Moon.”

Well, it took me a decade, but I finally took his advice on one of those titles.

How Will the Wolf Survive? was Los Lobos’ 1984 major label debut. Three years before they became well-known worldwide for their cover of Ritchie Valens’ ‘La Bamba,’ the Los Angeles band made a critical splash with this collection of Latin-influenced rock.

Los Lobos paid their dues playing bars and weddings, and this album feels like the work of well-practiced musicians tearing through a set of crowd-pleasers. Whether exploring blues rock or diving into their Mexican roots, the band delivers these tunes with equal parts polish and grit.

I don’t hear the sonic and stylistic experimentation here that made Kiko such a treasure, but I would throw this album on in any setting and feel confident everybody in the room would appreciate it.

Today’s track, the album’s closer, is a touching look at a Mexican immigrant hoping to find a new life in the U.S. in an uncertain political climate. How sad that it could have been written yesterday.