About 60 years ago, Perez Prado was the King Of Mambo. They took twenty years to forget about him, for the man had an immense talent for cooking up some very, very hot rhythms that kept 'em dancing. Lou Bega brought it all back, including that 50s look, Borsalino hat and all. But if he keeps going on like he is now, they'll forget about him a lot sooner.

A Little Bit Of Mambo was everything a good dance album should be - propulsive, itchy-fingered rhythm, blaring horns, some pretty tasty hooks and lots and lots of jiggling womanflesh to sell it all. Bega's obsession with the fairer sex hasn't abated, but his talent for brewing the right mix of the Mambo masala seems to have run away with one of the sirens from his entourage.

Ladies And Gentlemen (George Michael, are you listening?) is mediocre at best, unfocussed, inconsistent and just plain boring in too many parts. That probably comes of Bega actually trying to address issues in Just a gigolo and the vocoder-drenched Club Elitaire that just aren't at home in the Began context.

And where the heck is the Mambo? There are only a coupla tracks on side one that sound vaguely like the sound he brought back two years ago. (Wow, was it that long?) And the hooks, well, sorry boys, but shake your loyal booty all you like but these cookies don't cut the mustard. God is a woman, he says, but she's not yet a girlfriend, if she can spare only these leavings from her talent table.

"All I'm gonna see is people lovin' me." Lou is either the kind of blindly over-confident chappie that ties his shoelaces together before the 100M dash or a slightly worried, slightly overweight Mambo Maharaj patting himself on the back and assuring himself that everything's under control.

And there seems to be an abundance of telephonic conversations on this record - what's this, some kind of attempt to let us into his life or some absurdly arty statement? Wish I could hang up. Shit happens is kind of appropriate. Wake up and smell the humus, friend.

Lou Bega was quite an enjoyable cat.With Ladies And Gentlemen, the Began camp is on sticky ground. Tough to match up to a smash debut.