CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy

Sun 6th Aug, 2006 in Music Reviews

There’s something loveable about CSS. It may be the fact that they are a Brazilian bunch consisting of one fellow and four femes, with the lead singer calling herself ‘Lovefoxxx’; or that they make their own clothes, and don’t give a stuff what other people think; or perhaps it is that they make upfront, sassed-up, sexed-out electro-rock and get their kicks from taking the piss out of themselves, Paris Hilton and the music industry in general. Lucky for us listeners, the good people over at Sub-Pop have found a way to channel this once primitive arrangement into a fresh and welcomed addition to the otherwise saturated electro-rock marketplace.

Portuguese for Tired of Being Sexy, Cansei De Ser Sexy has no qualms in showing how (non)seriously CSS take themselves. From the opening track ‘CSS SUXXX’ (yes, CSS choose to replace ‘X’ with ‘XXX’ wherever possible) – with its heavy electro beat, and a Bloc Party sounding guitar crescendo, Lovefoxxx repeats the line “CSS SUXXX” for its two minute duration, and sets the perfect platform to spring into second track, ‘Patins’. Moving further into a radio-friendly indie-rock song, than its predecessor, Lovefoxxx’s thick Portuguese accent on this track couples well with the simplistic call and response chorus “Whenever I look at you I don’t know what to do” and pounding bass/snare drum combo in the background.

The first single off this release, ‘Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above’, is probably the strongest on the album, and establishes a real groove with its deep baseline, disco friendly guitar combined with irresistibly simple lyrics, sung in Lovefoxxx’s deep Brazilian accent. ‘Alala’ moves into sexy, synth-focussed rock, sounding similar to a Brazilian version of The Presets ‘Are You the One’; an aspect of the album that resonates in ‘Fuckoff, It’s not the only thing you have to show’. Unfortunately this dirtiness gets cleaned up and ditched for a chirpy, primitive synth on ‘Alcohol’, a track better suited to song selection for Tetris on GameBoy.

Although CSS have an original formula, some of their influences are often quite blatant. The punk fuelled snub at the Art industry, ‘Art Bitch’, is bordering on a direct rendition of the early Yeah Yeah Yeah’s release ‘Art Star’, with the exception that CSS take the lyrical satire one step further, through lines like “I am so hardcore / I sound like crap but people ask for more / Call me a revolutionarie, I poo on a plate and get it published in visionarie ” or the chorus “lick lick lick my art tit, suck suck suck my art hole”.

Lyrics like those, and the inclusion of the track titled ‘Meeting Paris Hilton’, in which Paris is ridiculed for being a fake, rich slut (surprise, surprise); provide a refreshing punk thrust to the album that serves as a charismatic compliment to the other aspects of the Brazilian aresenal.

Given that their ‘punk’ approach is similar ground that the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s or Peaches crossed years ago; and that the ‘indie-rock with an electro twist’ sound that CSS resemble is far from original, we can be thankful that the loveable formula the Brazilian’s have developed allows them to move away from being dumped into the basket of ‘electro-trash’, and succeed where so many others have failed.