Now more than 40 years and 20 albums removed from their garage-rock roots in East LA, Los Lobos still manage to sound like a hungry band with something to prove. Gates Of Gold, their first studio album since 2010, ripples with the confidence and worldliness of maturity without ever crossing into by-the-numbers territory. That’s primarily because David Hidalgo continues to sing with a disarming sense of soul (the stately “When We Were Free” and Southern-fried psych jaunt “There I Go” jump to the fore), while co-lead singer and guitarist Cesar Rosas keeps his shredtastic chops (“Mis-Treater Boogie Blues” and “I Believed You So”) and love for La Raza and Mexican tradition (“Poquito Para Aqui” and “La Tumba”) close to heart. While it’s easy to suspect that Hidalgo and company might be feeling their mortality (“Lord knows what we’ll find behind those gates of gold,” he sings, with palpable longing, on the title track—a song that arguably enshrines the hope of the immigrant experience, too), there’s also no denying that to this day, Los Lobos are making music with a fervor and vibrancy that only strengthens their place in the rock pantheon.