CSS

No one really knows what to do with CSS. Not Sub Pop, not Apple, and certainly not proponents of, uh, “nu-rave.” I guess we’re supposed to dance, guiltily. “Let’s Reggae All Night” has a nice locked-in squelch to it, but I wish the line I heard as “Let’s break the bed in half” wasn’t actually “break my back in half.” Which prompts the question: Does this band even get its own shtick? However ill-conceived the tinny beats, swiped hooks — “Rat Is Dead (Rage)” grooves on a chuggy Hives riff — and questionable “fun” quotient are, these dance-punk displacements present a tuneful, synth-shined step up from the act’s more annoyingly hit-or-miss debut. But the Brazilians’ newfound tastefulness comes at a cost: less personality, annoying or not.