Donkey CSS (CD)

Brazil's CSS release their follow-up to 2006's CANSEI DE SER SEXY (quot;I Got Tired of Being Sexyquot;). DONKEY is tough, street-ready and recreates the frenetic energy of their live shows. Equal part dance party, urban circus and out-and-out chaos.

Musicians are inclined to take themselves way seriously -- it comes with the territory of constantly being told how awesome you are. You'd think indie pop bands would be better about this, but they can be the worst offenders, perhaps because they're known to be really awesome. Thus it's been entirely refreshing for the scene to land CSS, aka Cansei de Ser Sexy, a Brazilian art-kitsch four (though they're from Sao Paolo, they're signed to venerable Seattle label Sub Pop). Arriving in stateside ears on 2006's self-tited LP, the group skewered themselves (first track: "CSS Suxxx"), and were irreverent about hipster taste ("Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above"). When they sang "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex," they were being honest about the sentiment, but maybe not about the word choice.

Yet the real draw of Cansei de Ser Sexy wasn't the one-liner style, but the way the group's music so cleverly expressed it. Deadpan vocal deliveries met with shiny-happy synths and house-tinged beats: it was music that simultaneously compelled you to dance and teased you for dancing.

New disc Donkey is a totally different animal. Someone (perhaps the band, perhaps the overcast Seattleites at Sub Pop) has determined that the group was wasting itself with twee comedy -- a passingly disappointing call, if a farsighted one. Still jammed with sharp turns of phrase -- see the potty humor of first track "Jager Yoga" -- it's in the main a more serious and circumspect set.

The compensation is a steadier musical palette. CSS clearly mean for Donkey to be a Real Rock Record, and there is less vibe of kids playing around in the studio. The band also hews closer to traditional indie rock motifs. "Jager Yoga" marches on a dogged rock drum and a whirl of distorted guitars; it's not a post-punk song, but it aims as post-punk listeners. "Rat Is Dead (Rage)" is post-punk, or at least has the spacey vocals and lost guitars of a New Order b-side.

With all the grown-up stuff, interludes of good old CSS synthesizer quirks are welcome, and Cansei de Ser Sexy fans will still find some good vintage shopping. The keyboard snark of "Left Behind" is evocative, even if the theme now is love and loss. "Move" is the record's proper Silverlake dance number, run on a bonanza of glossy '80s beats and hiccupping backup vocals. But in the end, it's closer to a track on Rilo Kiley's Under The Blacklight than it is to previous CSS work -- and that's probably just as the band intended.

By Jake Blaine