King Chango (Warner Brothers, 1996)

I bought this album based on the strength of King Chango's marvelous "Liberate," found on the Latin reggae compilation Viva la Rasta.   Unfortunately, little on King Chango lives up to that level of material.   Unlike "Liberate," which is a cohesive mix of smooth roots reggae and a Latin edge, the tracks on this set combine ska, Latin, roots, rock, and funk in a disjointed manner that practically assures limited success.  Seemingly every song shifts tempo at least once -- from a roots beat to a ska or Latin one, for instance -- providing an initially unique sound that wears thin and becomes gimmicky by the end of the album.  King Chango is at its best when performing their live-band roots with a Latin flavor (as opposed to Latin with roots flavor) -- as exemplified on "Confesion," "So Sweet," "Torero," and the best track here, "God Damn Killers" -- but many of the instances where they perform this likable style are ruined by their inane mid-song changes in style.  If they don't want to pick one style to settle into as a band, King Chango should at least settle on one style per song.  Perhaps this will come as the band matures.  Otherwise, they will continue to put out schizophrenic, uneven albums like this one.