Cansei De Ser Sexy

A review of their album 'Cansei De Ser Sexy'

Review Snapshot:
The latest band deemed to be hailed as the next apathetic heroes of the indie dance floor come from Sao Paulo, and if you're expecting any Brazilian home grown beats, you'd find more samba in the shoe of a Tipperary farmer. With a bassist straight from 70's porn soundtrack and a lead singer with a name to match, they drop the hometown beats and try to emulate the far superior LCD Soundsystem; far superior in terms of production their grasp on the English language and plain great songs.

The Cluas Verdict: 3.8 out of 10.

Full Review:
Opening with the 'CSS Suxxx', one of those god awful self conscious songs where they get the self criticism out of the way by way of saying that they suck. This doesn't fill the listener with the warmth of irony, particularly when they know that a joke is being played. 'Patins' is run of the mill indie with a foreign twang being the only interesting thing about the song. The publicity that CSS have scrounged for themselves comes from their funky 'Let's make love (and listen to Death from Above)', a gem of a song that'll make you want to dance as angularly arty as possible. Never mind making love, there's time for that afterwards. The bass and guitars overlap beautifully to create a groove worthy of the DFA at their most potently hypnotic. The stomp of 'Art Bitch' and reiteration of licking or sucking 'my art hole/tit' leads one to wonder whether they are a bit hypocritical in criticising those with an artier than thou attitude when it is clear that they are art/hipsters themselves.

The main gripe with this album is that for all its ramshackle would-be-cool production (think Libertines rawness lacking the grit that makes it work) is that it's full of filler. Decent tracks, and there are about four out of the eleven, only work because the band actually sound as if they tried to write a proper song, otherwise the song's point wanes and so does the listener's attention. 'Alcohol' is either a childish drawl or a great joke (depends on one's mood I've found) that sounds like a bunch of underage drinkers coming up with a really 'cool' idea to write a song about drinking and thinking you're an elephant or on fire. There seems to be a ring tone charm (is there such a thing?) to the band on 'F**k off is not the only thing you have to show' and this could come from the fact that most of the band didn't know how to play instruments until they came together. The bending of Lovefoxxx's vocals only adds to the growing tackiness that looms like a Paris Hilton song. Oh did I mention they wrote a song about Paris Hilton? It's another diatribe with the word bitch used a lot, otherwise I can't really tell what's going on.

Perhaps I am being too harsh on them; it is a fun record, harmless as it is it'll get a smile for sheer unashamed flirtatiousness. But one great song from a whole album and three other decent numbers is not enough to warrant the hype. CSS sum it up themselves in 'Patins': "I don't know who the hell are you baby, baby I don't know but I want you". In other words it's worth the fling but nothing more.

Daire Hall

To buy a new or (very reasonably priced) 2nd hand copy of this album on Amazon just click here.