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Cansei De Ser Sexy, ‘Donkey’ (Sub Pop)

Cansei De Ser Sexy consider ecstatic revelry more an imperative than a choice: “We didn’t come into the world to walk around,” seethes frontwoman Lovefoxxx on “Jager Joga,” the opening cut from the São Paulo band’s sophomore LP. “We came here to take you out!” Her voice demands hijinks. And packed with post-punk guitars, cutting synths, and frenzied bass, Donkey is a bluntly assertive, drunk-in-the-afternoon, neon-stretch-pants-on-inside-out party record for the un-self-serious set.

CSS released their international full-lengthdebut in 2006, and one ofits most beguiling tracks — “Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex” — popped up in an iPod commercial the followingyear, scoring the band a fleeting hit. The strain of the ensuing world tour is evident here: Donkey is darker and pricklier than its predecessor (CSS’s party is the kind where some unlucky tart gets carted away with alcohol poisoning), and tracks like “Rat Is Dead (Rage)” are genuinely unnerving.

|Still, the quintet mostly stays on message, doling out unpretentious poolside jams that recall ESG, Liquid Liquid, and the Human League. The Jamaican-flag-raising “Reggae All Night” boasts handclaps, ping-ponging synth effects, and rubber-band bass that never lets up. When Lovefoxxx declares, “You are so fast, I’m so slow / Because that’s the way I like to roll,” it seems likely that her definition of “slow” is awfully different from the rest of the world’s.

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