CANSEI DE SER SEXY
DONKEY

I never know what to expect from Cansei de Ser Sexy. An album named after a burro? Artwork featuring a giant glass animal head? Songs like "Jager Yoga?" What you can expect is more double time hand clapping, more Lovefoxxx, and more of the same pop-lectro dizzying So Paulo rock music. Except this time, CSS is setting their guns to stun, with little result: it's not stunning, and we're not stunned. But hey, we're still dancing.

Globetrotting has certainly influenced this album, Lovefoxxx mentioning something about Helsinki almost feels canned to remind us that this was an album made on the road, made for the road. And the nucleus of CSS's previous work fades to black as Adriano Cintra takes on more production and more songwriting, in a different direction that I'd have expected. Single "Rat Is Dead (Rage)" began the movement, and the album confirmed my suspicions that CSS is branching out and subtly losing it's charm.

However all is not lost, with "Jager Yoga" living up the original Sexy standards, and "Beautiful Song" bringing a little bit of the soul of Lovefoxxx back, which is unfortunately conspicuously missing at points on the album.) Overall what we get are some solid electro-pop move-and-groove tracks, fitted for varied praise and some foot movement. What we don't get is a blockbuster sequel to Cansei de Ser Sexy.

The high points give us just a smidgen of what many people were eagerly anticipating from the next studio... but considering this isn't really a genuine studio effort, maybe we'll see another shift on Donkey 2. Just kidding. They'd never name it something that quirky... - joe puglisi