Brazilian pop-rockers CSS are back on the scene with their sophomore effort, an energetic album strangely entitled Donkey. This recent collection of songs is fascinating in that it offers some new insights into the band’s emotional repertoire, while still keeping the raw power that was evident in their first, eponymous release.

CSS stands for Cansei de Ser Sexy, a Portuguese phrase that translates to, “got tired of being sexy.” If that makes you smile a little, then you’ve already tuned in to the most important part of listening to this band — a sense of humor. Far from being a joke, though, the band consists of serious musicians who simply value the enjoyment of music as much as the making of it. The result is a fantastic blend of fun with some seriously good songs.

Donkey is a departure from the first CSS album in that it explores some more sophisticated themes, both in terms of musical motifs and lyrical content. On the first album the lead singer, a Japanese Brazilian girl named Luísa Hanaê Matsushita (who usually goes by the stage moniker “Lovefoxxx”), made a feature out of the fact that she did not know very much English, which is the language most CSS songs are written in. Of course, the natural progression of language learning means that Matsushita’s English has improved tremendously between the two albums. This in turn means that the lyrics are getting more clever, but at the same time, part of the charm of the songs on the first album was that they were sung in deliciously broken English. Matushita’s lyrical style is still fun and cute, but I do wonder as her English improves even more if she will have to come up with other gimmicks to keep the audience interested in what she has to say.

The songs on Donkey as well reflect a more mature outlook, and deal with more serious themes and issues than anything on the first album. Songs like “How I Became Paranoid” would never have fit well within the irreverent, carefree context of the first album, but somehow the slightly heavier subject matter seems to work well here, and is indicative of emotional growth on the part of the band. They have stopped short of going too far, though — you won’t find anything in the songs that suggests truly serious situations, and songs like “Jager Yoga” balance out the equation and provide light-hearted content more reminiscent of CSS’s earlier efforts.

The overall feeling of this album has not deviated much from the CSS of the past, although it has to be said that these days the band seem to prefer a bit more subtlety in terms of musical texture and songwriting style. The rocking energy is still there, but this time it’s tempered with something resembling emotional development, perhaps even maturity. This is a good sign, because it shows that the band knows how to grow without sacrificing the the facets of themselves that brought them to fame in the first place. These are rocking feel-good tunes, make no mistake, but the new CSS is starting to grow up, and if they keep producing albums of this quality, no doubt their fans will continue to come along for the ride, just to see where the CSS road is going to lead next.