CSS - Donkey

Rating:

* * *

Verdict:

Slightly less fun follow-up from Brazilian band

CSS, with vampish cutie Lovefoxxx out front, are at their best live because they know how to party and work a crowd.

Their first album

Cansei de Ser Sexy

had a handful of excellent songs, including

Let's Make And Listen To Death From Above

, but overall it was  lightweight and verging on novel.

On follow-up

Donkey

they have grown up, injected the songs with grunt, and it's more of a lolly scramble of styles.

They go from the Pixies-inspired first single

Rat Is Dead (Rage)

, with a gorgeous grating guitar, on to the cheesy keyboard squirts and galactic trills of

Let's Reggae All Night

, and the head-nodding 80s bop'n'roll of

How I Became Paranoid

.

Even though Lovefoxxx is keen for us all to jump up on tables and dance our arses off on party anthem

Left Behind

(sure to be a future live favourite) this new found maturity means the overall sense of fun has waned a little.

Still, CSS are better live than on record, and in today's brave new music world, where touring is the main source of a band's income (unless you score an iPod ad, which CSS have already done with

Music Is My Hot Hot Sex

) then that's not a bad thing.

And besides, CSS like to party -  and rest assured they will always party hard.

Scott Kara