Sundtrak

Date Released: July 22, 2008
Album Genre: Indie rock, Alternative, Synth
Album Rating: 6/10
Sounds Like: New Young Pony Club, Bondo do Role, The Teenagers

For all of you who somehow got an early version of this album, it's not real. If Jager Yoga is an instrumental ballad it's not real at all. You think CSS would do that? I just want to put it out there for those who made a judgment on the album without listening to the real thing.

First impression? It's not as bad as people say, it was decent. I think this album will separate the old fans from the new. From their self-titled debut album, they sounded almost dance electro grunge indie. The synth and raw unusual sounds in their first album is why I think they made it so big from the underground into the indie scene. This has been somewhat toned down in their upcoming album Donkey. You could say the sound has been somewhat refined from their debut album. It might be the influence of having an actual large label backing them up this time or the fact that they thought they had to appeal to a larger audience, but I felt as though they shed some of their older synth filled tracks with strange lyrics to replace it with an almost garage indie sound with very little risk taken for any of the tracks. CSS might have to clean up their live act though cause I have a feeling their audience will switch from ecstasy filled dance crazed adolescents to mellow cigarette smoking youth. I have mixed feelings about this album, so I included three tracks so you could make your own decision.

The album starts out with a different sound instantly, you could hear it with Jager Yoga. Much more refined, at times I even thought it was a different band. Followed by the track that CSS leaked themselves, I'm sure most people who have listened to CSS have heard this song. It's got so much hype alone already I won't even post it as one of the tracks, one of the best tracks in the album though. Again, the track is more garage indie than what they used to sound like, I don't think there was any synth in this track. I felt Let's Ragaee All Night was like a censored version of CSS, with "If you want a friend, we can drink in the afternoon", the same went for Give Up. It's like their label told them to tone it down and they agreed. But they decided to spark things up with Left Behind, though I really wish the lyrics were a bit more raw than they are. You're not married yet Lovefoxxx, still some time to live it out. I felt Beautiful Song was one of the prettier songs of the album, I guess thus the title. Titles don't always match the songs! How I Became Paranoid sounds somewhat different, can I even place this in the pop genre? I Fly is a great track, it should define what their new style is, simply refined. Back to their roots, Believe Achieve and Air Painter is full of synth chords and familiar vocals but still has what it seems CSS is going towards, it's the combination of both old and new sounds I think CSS should've done throughout the album.