The 2006 arrival of Sao Paulo novo-wave sextet CSS couldn't have been better timed, coming as it did in the wake of a pervasive post-punk revival in indie-rock, a burgeoning Diplo-led interest in gritty Brazilian dance music, and a broadband-enabled globalized mode of music consumption that allowed record labels to perform international A&R scouting from their desktops. And CSS were more than happy to seize the moment, making music with no regard for tomorrow, filling their hipster-embraced debut album Cansei de Ser Sexy with trashy tributes to indie-rock favorites of the day and 15-minute celebrities du jour.
However, after their 2008 downer of a sophomore album, Donkey, failed to generate the same amount of dancefloor traction-- and following a subsequent split from their North American boosters at Sub Pop-- CSS know it's going to take a lot more than a Death From Above 1979 reunion tour to make them relevant again. And so on La Liberación, they attempt something of a maturation process. If, as Pitchfork's Eric Harvey said in his review of Donkey, CSS' disco-punk found its life source in Blondie's "Atomic", then La Liberación finds them uncoiling that tightly wound sound to absorb "The Tide Is High" island vibes and "Rapture"-style inner-city funk.
Musically speaking, CSS can evolve only as much as lightning-rod frontwoman Lovefoxxx allows, and on La Liberación, she's only game to break from her potty-mouthed party-girl persona about half the time. That Lovefoxxx is aware of her own vacuity doesn't make it easier to take-- the remedial, call-and-response chorus of "I Love You" (all together now: "I love you/ I love you, too") may very well be a comment on the transactional nature of relationships, but, in the absence of a proper hook, it feels more like lazy songwriting. And the would-be empowerment anthem "City Grrrl"-- an unapologetic celebration of revealing outfits and one-night stands-- feels like a forced attempt to fly the freak flag for club kids sick of dancing to "Born This Way".
And yet as much as these songs play right into well-worn CSS themes of vanity and self-gratification, on La Liberación, the band sounds genuinely torn between pandering to the sort of hopped-up hedonists who want to rip off Lovefoxxx’s clothes when she does a stage dive, and a desire to dial down the crassness and redefine their character. Their experiments don't always yield useful results-- the downcast, acoustic-guitar-powered "Partners in Crime" comes awkwardly decorated with free-form piano rolls that trip up rather than propel the song's momentum. But there are moments when CSS find a way to successfully evolve without alienating their base, particularly on the playful, Afro-funk-inflected pop of "Echo of Love" and the "Paper Planes"-fashioned, tropical slow-burner "Hits Me Like a Rock", a winning duet with Bobby Gillespie (returning the favor after Lovefoxxx's guest appearance on Primal Scream's 2008 release Beautiful Future). In light of these developments, the sax-squawked nihilism of the closing "Fuck Everything" feels all the more empty: There's enough evidence on La Liberación to suggest CSS actually do care about being a band you'll still respect in the morning.
