When I heard the song “Music is My Hot, Hot Sex” in the iPod Touch commercial, I thought it was pretty catchy. Good beat, mindless lyrics, something you could listen and dance to without having to feel philosophical or inquisitive. While sometimes I hear a catchy tune and download it before realizing I already own it, I knew it wasn’t the case this time. It was different enough than anything I listen to, and yet I was still intrigued.
I googled it, as one does with all things they want to learn more about. Their genre was described as “Brazilian indie pop”, and if that description isn’t reason enough to keep up the search, I don’t know what is. After further google investigations, I discovered that CSS stood for “Cansei de Ser Sexy”, and it stood for “tired of being sexy”. Apparently Beyonce said that in an interview once, and well, that is a quote that is practically begging to be mocked. An interesting sounding genre and a stab at an “actress”/singer I particularly dislike for no real reason? Well, sign me up for the CSS fan club.
And so I got their self-titled album. It’s probably the most entertaining album I’ve stumbled across this year so far, and it’s one of those albums that just gets better every time you listen to it. A friend once described an album they were recommending as “a great album to listen to just straight through”, and I’d have to use that to describe CSS. Their lyrics are in no way thought provoking (“lick lick lick my art tit” is just one brilliant example), but the music is extremely catchy nonetheless. With song titles like “Meeting Paris Hilton”, featuring such wonderful lyrics as:
Hello, this is Paris Hilton…
I, I went to the beach
the beach was so hot
She came to me and said:
Do you like the beach, bitch?
What’s not to like?
It’s a short album, yes, but a really unique one. To save this from sounding like an album review, I’ll break out my inner fangirl and stop commenting on lyrics and album quality.
People think that CSS “sold out” by letting their song be used in an Apple commercial, but really? I still don’t know many people who have heard of them, let alone listen to their music. Maybe that’s part of why I like them. I’m not one of those people that will refuse to listen to a band once they’ve gone ‘mainstream’, but I do pride myself in listening to bands that aren’t on the radio every five minutes (I’m looking at you, Nickelback). CSS just seems like the kind of band that you’d want to hang out with after a show and not feel like you need to take a thousand showers to get the stench of entitled rock star off of you. They’re fun and hip, but unlike other bands (cough Panic! cough) they don’t milk their eccentricity for all of it’s worth. Maybe because they aren’t American. Or because they don’t have emo egos. Probably the latter.
I like you, CSS, because I can listen to you while I’m walking to work or class and not feel the need to analyze my relationship or the meaning of life. I can sing you in the shower, or into my hairbrush, or at the gym, and your bubblegum songs will still make me smile.
