CSS - Donkey

 

The difficult second album. It is a curse that has plagued the universe since the beginning of time, well not quite, but almost. A band or artist, so promising, so original, so raw on their debut approaches the second album exhausted after months of intensive touring, after being taken away from the life that inspired their songwriting in the first place, and try to create an album better than its predecessor. It is usually a chance for indie bands to break in to the mainstream (Coldplay, anyone?), but can also make oh-so-promising bands fall flat on their faces (dare I mention The Strokes?).

With Donkey, then, Brazilian band CSS (short for Cansei De Ser Sexy – translation: tired of being sexy) face the difficult second album syndrome. The band have all left their home country and migrated to either England or New York and toured first album Cansei De Ser Sexy to death. So much so infact that the title Donkey is a metaphor for the way the punishing tour schedule set on the band by their old management made them feel like donkeys.. apparently.

Bassist Ira Trevisan quit the band this year among fears about global warming. To top this off, the band’s lead singer and sparkly catsuit-wearer Lovefoxxx went and found herself overnight fame and is now one half of a celebrity couple, engaged as she is to Klaxon Simon Taylor-Davis. The question is: in the midst of all this madness, can CSS deliver an album as infectious, dirty, energetic and downright bizarre as their first? The answer is no – but who says that's a bad thing.

CSS have, predictably, cleaned up. Gone are the fuzzy, distorted guitars, the strange electronic sound effects and wild style of Cansei De Ser Sexy. Instead they have been replaced by glossy, funky guitar licks, sleek beats and a more refined sound. Somebody presumably has also told the band that songs with titles such as Fuck Off is Not the Only Thing You Have to Show do not a hit single make. Gone too are Lovefoxxx’s transgressive, dirty lyrics. While she used to satirise pop culture in gritty lyrics, Lovefoxxx now merely invites you to reggae all night. The most lyrically interesting part of the album is on I Fly – a strange and bizarre stalker’s manifesto in which Lovefoxxx takes the identity of a fly to follow someone. While on Cansei De Ser Sexy Lovefoxxx wanted to have hot sex with the listener, now she merely buzzes in the shadows.

However, Donkey still manages to be a pop-punk-dance-indie mish-mash of styles and influences. CSS have retained the eclecticism of their debut on songs such as Rat Is Dead (Rage) (CSS do Pixies), Reggae All Night (CSS do 80s electro), Give Up (CSS do indie) and Move (CSS do Kylie). The funky guitars and bass lines the band were so adept are still apparent, no more so than on opener Jager Yoga – a fantastic party anthem with chants reminiscent of first album opener CSS Suxxx.

The problem with Donkey is that it will be compared to Cansei De Ser Sexy. As a stand alone album it is brilliant, but it lacks slightly what people fell in love with CSS for in the first place, Anthems and Edge. There are no enormous crowd pleasers such as Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above and there really is no edge, although it is a well-rounded and ambitious. It should certainly cross the band over into more commercial territory, but this is at the sacrifice of attitude, intelligence and, above all, dirt.

Generic? Maybe. A departure from what was originally appealing about CSS? Possibly. Worth a listen? Definitely.

Laura Rodwell

Donkey is released on SubPop on 22nd July

Get it from Play.com or iTunes

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