There are sequels, and then there are spin-offs. After initial reports that Lovefoxxx, lead vocalist of Brazilian Post-Punk dance-band Cansei de Ser Sexy, was working on a solo album after the success of her band’s debut I was living in anticipation of the latter more-so than the former.
In the end, the reports of a Lovefoxxx solo project proved false. That bummed me out, and made me a little less than enthused about the CSS’s follow-up. But the São Paulo-based band’s sophomore album Donkey, which is out today on Sub Pop Records, picks right up where the first one left off. And I’ll take a stylish and satisfying sequel in place of a non-existent spin-off any day.
Seriously though, the first time Emeyesi dropped the lead single “Rat Is Dead (Rage)” in a DJ set I didn’t really want to hear it for the simple fact that it was the band again and not Lovefoxxx going for dolo on some sort of M.I.A. or maybe Santogold-esque tip. But I got over it. And the song, which drowns their brand of greasy Art-Punk in grungy Alt-Rock riffage and melodiously catchy hooks, really grew on me.
Cansei de Ser Sexy “Rat Is Dead (Rage)”
The remainder of Donkey is largely based around similar counterpoints, residing somewhere between punky art-kid New Wave, pretty (and infectious) Pop, chilly but aerobically rhythmic Electronica & Post-Disco, and guitar-fueled Indie & Alternative Rock. The resultant collection of songs sounds something like a mash-up of the Talking Heads, Fleetwood Mac, The Velvet Underground, Smashing Pumpkins (or Pavement maybe) and Yeah Yeah Yeahs mixed for Danceteria-era clubland. Not much of a stretch, huh?
On first listen nothing on Donkey stood out quite as much as the hits culled from their self-titled debut such as “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above” or “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex.” And their songwriting seems a little less tongue-in-cheek, being that there are no songs with Paris Hilton’s name in the title this time.
“Let’s Reggae All Night” makes an effort to fit into the same debauched space as “Let’s Make Love” and “Hot Hot Sex” with it’s steady cow-bell-infused beat, driving bassline, choppy guitar riffs, wonky synth-stabs and vocoded vocal bridge. But it can’t hope to be as strikingly idiosyncratic as a celebration of the virtues of screwing to the music of a Canadian Dance-Punk duo.
CSS’ more straightforward approach to lyricism is exemplified on “Move,” a bouncy Carribean-influenced Dance-Pop jam that evokes the Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club and early Madonna which is aimed unapologetically at moving butts in more ways than one. I don’t mind the less avant-garde course taken on “Move” though. In fact, it’s one of my favorite tunes on the disc besides the appropriately titled “Beautiful Song,” an uptempo number with plucky guitars, double-time hi-hats, electro-claps, bubbly organs and UFO-sound synths that recalls Prince’s “When You Were Mine” a taste.
Cansei de Ser Sexy “Beautiful Song”
It might not be “hot hot sex” all over again, but the title Donkey isn’t an allusion to the music on the album being “ass” either. And spin-off or no, Lovefoxxx’s precocious deadpan and charmingly off-kilter English is always music to my ears.
