ALBUM REVIEW : *** 1/2 LOS LOBOS, “Colossal Head”, Warner Bros.

On 1992’s “Kiko,” their last regular studio album, Los Lobos became art-pop experimentalists of the first order. In this follow-up, they’ve narrowed the scope and stripped things down, revisiting various roots with the assured, simple strokes of a master.

Urgent yet supremely relaxed, “Colossal Head” is an album based in rhythm--multicultural soul and funk that evokes War and Santana, Caribbean polyrhythms, arty, Tom Waits click-clack. Harmony instruments provide color, with playful squiggles, stormy sheets and spiraling strands of strings tweaking tradition with a playful surrealism.

The group sings about lovers’ breakups, the flavors of a neighborhood, the lost days of social activism and a funeral that becomes an occasion for a jump-blues celebration.

In the minimalist spaces of “Colossal Head,” a joyful spirit of community prevails over isolation. Even when Los Lobos get earthy, the fantastic is never far away, and whenever this band plays, every place feels like home.