Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 21/07/08
Label: Sub Pop

We've all done it. Tried to recreate that sudden, spontaneous night out, only to feel oddly flat throughout, or returned to the scene of the perfect holiday and found something's missing. So it goes with this second CSS album. On a technical level of musicianship, "Donkey" improves on "Cansei de Ser Sexy", and retains the ragged poppiness, bolshy attitude and charming English-as-second-language phrasing of that debut. So why does it feel like trying to relive a thrillingly animal one night stand and wishing you'd left it at that?

Partly it's familiarity breeding contempt. As with the Scissor Sisters' "Ta Dah", this revisits the same sounds (fizzy mix of disco, plastic funk and indie) and themes ("Dance or we'll kick you in the shins!", essentially) as the debut, but with the zest drained. One of the better songs is "Move", with its knowing nods in the direction of Daft Punk and Talking Heads' "Naïve Song", but when the chorus demands "You've got to keep moving", you wonder why CSS didn't take their own advice. Only "Rat Is Dead (Rage)" aims for new sonic ground, roaring in on the riff of Pixies' "Break My Body", though it runs out of steam within a minute.

Mostly, "Donkey" is undone by a dearth of really memorable, infectious tunes. The plodding disco of "Let's Reggae All Night" sounds like Hot Chip with one leg stuck in a mantrap, while generic indie-dance numbers like "Give Up" and the single "Left Behind" mistake mere pace for genuine energy. Lovefoxxx tries to keep both songs afloat with yapping vocals, but the effect is of simulated mania, the joyless hyperactivity of a tired children's television presenter.

There are a few moments which sound almost as fresh as the debut. As well as "Move", there's the Bis-like relentlessness of "Beautiful Song", while "How I Became Paranoid" is blessed with a gonzoid heavy metal guitar and a bright, memorable chorus. Better still are the last two tracks, "Believe Achieve" and "Air Painter", with subtle, sneak-up-on-you melodies and unpredictable, wrong-footing shifts in tempo. But more representative is the humdrum "I Fly", with a lyrical conceit and tune that are barely enough to scribble on a fingernail, let alone fill a song.

Bands have followed up promising debuts with disappointing seconds and driven on to renewed success, from Ash to The Strokes to the Jesus & Mary Chain. But far more common are the Elasticas, Marions, Libertines and Drugstores littering the lay-bys. It would take a bold gambler to stake on CSS not joining them.

    by Jaime Gill