When Brazilian band CSS appeared out of nowhere in 2006 with a hyperactive frontwoman, a group of musicians who could barely play their instruments, and an album so undeniably low-budget that it couldn't be anything but charming, people took notice. It was heartwarming, many thought, that a band with such an unbridled sense of fun, who lampooned Paris Hilton and sang about shagging to Death From Above 1979 could enjoy relative success on a mainstream level.
Fast-forward two years (three, if you count the original release of their self-titled debut on Brazilian label Trama Virtual). Having flogged the arse out of that album and toured the Western World to saturation point - losing and gaining a member along the way - Cansei de Ser Sexy seem jaded. Perhaps not even jaded; Donkey, their second outing, sounds like the quintet have simply run out of ideas.
Riding the crest of the electropop/new wave fad two years ago was all well and good; but there's only so much mileage you can get from the same formula, and it's starting to become hackneyed if most of the tracks on Donkey are anything to go by. It's not that Rat Is Dead (Rage), How I Became Paranoid and I Fly are bad songs - they just lack the spark that CSS were notorious for bringing to their music.
Mark 'Spike' Stent's production doesn't help, either; having worked with huge names like Madonna and Bjork, he covers these tracks with gloss, consequently stripping CSS of their trademark, ramshackle charm.
Still, there are several consolation prizes on offer: Left Behind, Beautiful Song and Move attempt to inject a dose of vim and vigour into the album, the latter two borrowing heavily from late '80s dance-pop. Overall, though, it's a disappointment to admit that there's little hope of resuscitating this particular dead Donkey.
