** Ace of Base

CRUEL SUMMER

(Arista)

Ace of Base's happy fast-beat music, clean and blond, found favor among fans of Nordic disco. Sadly, there's little in their third CD to remind would-be Vikings what all the club fuss was about. Where once the band looked to the much too twirly music of Abba for inspiration, Cruel Summer looks to Bananarama, the emptiest of disco-influenced girl groups, and to fellow Swedish star Robyn, the most prefabbed of new-jill girls, as it hip-hops and girl-groups its way from one radio-friendly cliché to another without pushing the envelope of a tempo, lyric, or riff. Not until "Don't Go Away," the disc's sixth cut, do we encounter a club-music secret (the chant line "Please don't go," from Double You's cover version of a K.C. & the Sunshine Band nonhit). Not until "Tokyo Girl," the disc's 10th song, do we encounter fast-fast Eurodisco. And "Tokyo Girl" sounds self-satisfied next to the nervous cuteness of a true Euro hit like Paradiso's "Bailando" and "Bandolero."

-- Michael Freedberg