CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy

Some in the UK were suspicious of Brazil's CSS (standing for Cansei de Ser Sexy, meaning "I got tired of being sexy" in Portuguese, apparently taken from a Beyoncé quote). One can see why. Their debut album was a concoction of mutant disco, electro-pop, funk, and punky thrash played by five torridly attractive ladies and a chap with a comedy 'tash. One of the ladies was called Lovefoxxx. Basically, they came to us perfectly formed.

The songs of this album are called things like 'Music is My Hot Hot Sex' and 'Art Bitch' and feature lyrics like 'Lick, lick, lick/ my art tit'. Like The Teenagers, who emerged from France at roughly the same time and were greeted with similar 'are they for real?' bemusement, CSS seemed concerned primarily with booze (the self-explanatory 'Alcohol'), sex (erm… take your pick) and shallow, shiny celeb culture (sample lyric of the brilliant 'Meeting Paris Hilton': 'I went to the bitch/ The bitch was so hard'). More importantly, it was completely ace and you couldn't help but dance when it came on at parties.

Clearly, we were being conned. This music was too fun, witty and inventive for the country which gave the world Coldplay to possibly take seriously. Sadly, CSS actually seemed to agree with this assessment. In April 2008, Iracema Trevisan left the band, citing guilt about the band's carbon footprint. Their second album 'Donkey' was a more muted affair and saw the band make a half-hearted bid at gravitas.

Being sexy is hard, thankless work. Just ask Beyoncé. Still, it was a shame to see this loveably smart and silly band suddenly live up to its name. Thankfully, we'll always have (Meeting) Paris (Hilton).

Best tracks: 'Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above', 'Meeting Paris Hilton', Music is My Hot Hot Sex'

Richard Morris