Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Best Albums Of 2008 #2


CSS-Donkey

Music labels are completely useless until you actually find yourself writing about music. So-and-so is electro. So-and-so is gypsy punk (Okay, so that’s just Gogol Bordello, but whatever.). When Cansei de Ser Sexy released their self-titled debut in 2006, they were lumped into the New Rave scene, a genre comprised of bands that sound nothing alike (Like most of the bands in these genres do.). CSS sounds nothing like Klaxons who sound nothing like M.I.A. But the media loves a good genre tag, so there you go. CSS became a bit of a genre representative, achieving a few minor hit singles and a surprisingly large following for a Brazilian band with questionable English language skills.

Their second album, Donkey, pulls back quite a bit on the pacing and pep of their first album. The songs are more mid-tempo and ready for live play. And if we were to label this record, it’d be with the good old “Alternative” tag (It‘s like a scarlet letter, no?). The songs on Donkey meld the electronic rock stylings of Cansei de Ser Sexy with a more straightforward alt rock sound. The influences on this album are more Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies/Breeders than EMF or Jesus Jones or whatever the New Rave tag is supposed to entail. The result is a more confident and complete record than Cansei de Ser Sexy.

“Move”

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