QUE PASA

Thirty-two years after their last album (at least the one of the more stable line-up), this is a reunion album that features four of the five founding members. Only Dick Powell (drums) is replaced by Ed Spevock (who has hold the sticks from their second album onwards: he was even featured on their very poor Kid's Stuff).

This band is the most Mexican of the UK. Actually, their leader is a maniac about Western movies and a great Ennio Morricone fan, he will integrate and combine these elements in Babe Ruth's music.

For this reunion album, the band is exactly presenting this sort of music. Just that you have to add a very strong hip-hop feel that has been added ("Que Pasa", "Mother Tongue" (both parts), "Doncha Wanna Dance").

Apparently, the song "The Mexican" has been very popular in the hip-hop world and is consider as a cult song. But to listen to these beats is something more in-line for my eighteen years old son than for myself.

This band never raised a lot of interest from my part, only their debut was fine. But this one is rather weak. I would have imagined their great heavy-blues rock with a gorgeous Janita Haan back in business; but she only sounds like this during "Break For The Border". The song "The Blues" can be related with a good song, but only for the middle part. The intro and the closing being some sort of piano bar oriented jazz jam.

There is even a cover of "Apache" from The Shadows! Press next. You can do the same when you reach the funky "Four Letter Word". I know a four letter word which could perfectly illustrate this track.

The "best" moment of this album, is the rework of "The Mexican" which is split into "Mexican Millennium" (part one & two) and "Santa Anna" (which was the Morricone borrowed part on the original version released in ... '73).

If you like this combination of music (Mexican sounds with hip-hop) there are chances that you might like this work. I am at the opposite of this (even if my wife is Mexican). This is a totally dispensable work which lasts for over an hour! I can't stand it really. The rating? One star, what else?

"Que Pasa" is the 6th full-length studio album by UK rock/hard rock act Babe Ruth. The album was released through Revolver Records in 2007. That´s 31 years after their last album release "Kid's Stuff (1976)". Drummer Ed Spevok is the only remaining member in the lineup from that album, but the four other members in the "Que Pasa" lineup are not strangers to fans of the band. It´s the four original members from the debut album "First Base (1972)" who have reunited. So in addition to Ed Spevok we have Jenny Haan on vocals, Alan Shacklock on guitars, Dave Punshon on keyboards and Dave Hewitt on bass. With a lineup like that I initially had high expectations to the quality of the music...

...the album soon turns into quite the disappointment though. The execution of the music is professional enough but I think the tracks on the album lack power and bite. Jenny Haan doesn´t quite sound like her own rock mama self anymore either and that´s a big minus in my book. To be honest she sounds a bit tired and worn. While the tracks as such are well composed they lack what made the early albums by the band so enjoyable and that´s attitude. There are 14 tracks on the album which are way too many when the music isn´t that interesting. My mind simply wanders several times during the album´s playing time. To call this a hard rock release is probably a bit misleading too as it leans more towards commercial pop/rock music than sweaty hard rock. There´s even some rather atrocious rap vocals featured on the album.

All in all "Que Pasa" is a big disappointment and a rather weak comeback album by Babe Ruth. As the sound production is of relatively high quality, the songwriting compositionally acceptable (but uninspired) and the musicianship on an acceptable level too I´ll give "Que Pasa" a 2 star (40%) rating, but it´s not an album I´ll put on for my own personal enjoyment.

Here is a blatant attempt to cash in on lingering sentiment toward the band by middle- agers with fond memories of youth spent listening to the radio back when Babe Ruth records occasionally graced the airwaves, particularly "The Mexican" and to a lesser extent "Wells Fargo", both from the band's first and only decent album way back in 1972.

Apparently the original group's music has been adopted by various artists and fans of the hip-hop community in recent years, and the band seems to have decided there was enough interest to mount a couple of reunion tours and festival appearances, and certainly a new studio release for the merch table was a wise commercial decision as well.

This is decent music I suppose if you're a hip-hop freak or just generally a fan of harder dance-based rock music, but its certainly a long, long ways away from the group's Latin and blues-tinged heavy prog of their earliest days. The shift isn't so surprising I suppose, given their transition from rock to pop-dance band over the course of five albums released during the seventies. That transition was complete by the time they released the lackluster 'Kid's Stuff' in 1978 with no original members remaining at that point, and given several members of that final lineup rebranded themselves as the post-disco group Liquid Gold before dissolving altogether, this latest sound could probably have been predicted.

Pretty much every track here was penned by guitarist Alan Shacklock, and the lineup is the same as that from the band's 1972 debut with the exception of drummer Ed Spevok who appeared on all but the group's first studio release. None of the songs really stand out, although I must admit Shacklock is a pretty good guitar player and distinguishes himself on a couple songs like "Doncha Wanna Dance" (power chords), "Killer Smile" (Latin fingering) and "The Blues" (anthem blues rock). Otherwise most of the songs are dance tunes with smatterings of rock sensibilities, Latin influences and occasional jazzy piano tinkling. The band also revisits their biggest hit "The Mexican" with a fairly faithful remake titled "Mexican Millennium (Part 1)" that adds a persistent and thudding dance beat. Haan's vocals throughout are serviceable, but she has clearly lost some of the gritty toughness and range of her younger days (who hasn't though, really).

The band always seemed to include at least one or two covers in their early days and this album is no exception, in this case a decent rework of the 1960 Shadows instrumental "Apache". That song has been redone ad infinitum over the years by everyone from Jeff Beck to Vanilla Ice including numerous samplings on hip-hop and rap records dating as far back as the early eighties. This accounts for only a couple minutes of the hour-long record, and I suppose was included as a nod to the band's new generation of hip-hop fans.

I can't say this is a terrible album since the musicianship is fairly good and Haan's vocals are still impressive even if she has lost several steps since her youth. But this is not progressive music by any stretch, and only vaguely resembles the sounds that made the band's reputation those many decades ago. More power to them for having a go after all these years, but I can't say this is anything more than a collector's piece for ardent fans and therefore rates no more than two of five stars and not much of a recommendation from me.

peace