Tuesday September 4, 2001

Merry Go Round

(Station 13)

Grade: C+

Most who know Delinquent Habits know them from its hit "Spanglish" - a mixture of English and Spanish lyrics - single "Tres Delinquentes," off its self-titled 1996 debut.

Well, now, the Latino rhyme-smiths, O.G. Style - who produced all the album's tracks - Kemo and Ives have returned with a third album called Merry Go Round, which can't be considered too bad. The problem is that it's not really a good one, either. It's more of the sort of LP that you can play and enjoy, but easily forget afterward.

These guys seem to be quite comfortable with their style. Cypress Hill has used "Spanglish" before, but Delinquent Habits seems to be making music directed mainly toward the Latino community at large.

Take the repenting, paranoia-induced wake-up call "No Sense," which talks about the low-income Latin community's problems more than any other hip-hop song ever known. The breezy "Que Vuelva" sounds like an authentic Latin dancehall song, complete with a female vocalist singing in Spanish over a laid-back beat, and has no rapping in it until the final 30 seconds or so of the track. Hold on - for a minute there, it almost sounded like these guys were experimenting.

This lack of experimentation is the CD's downfall. Too many lyrics sound almost identical, and it is a shame because this LP has lots of potential but was then rendered clichˇ by its filler tunes. Lyrics about ghetto life and getting "high as Robert Downey" fill some nice beats that are paid no justice.

Not that there's anything wrong with your standard "drinking 40s and chasing hoochies" song, but like an underachieving student who shows flashes of greatness: one simply expects more.