Little Bit of Mambo
What sounds like an early-model Casio playing "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" quickly gives way to a classicPerez Pradoriff. On top of it all, Lou Bega--born in Germany to a Ugandan father and Italian mother--hoarsely exhorts the floor to "Mambo No. 5." A runaway hit in more than a dozen countries, it's an agreeable trifle, if ultimately not as charming as "Macarena" proved to be a few summers back. Throughout this cash-in album, Bega comes off like a cross between a less cleverTone-Locand a less inspiredBuster Poindexter. If there's a great Europop-Cuban fusion in the making, its standard-bearers will have to come up with more durable trashy fun than this.--Rickey Wright