It's fitting that the best song on "¡Viva La Cobra!," Cobra Starship's sophomore release, is called "Guilty Pleasure."
As the side-project of Midtown front man Gabe Saporta, Cobra Starship gained some notoriety last year with the tongue-in-cheek hit "Bring It (Snakes On A Plane)," a loving ode to the film by the same name.
Although Cobra Starship is often grouped with these bands, and their Fueled By Ramen label mates Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco, Saporta approaches his music with more unabashed fun. According to its website, Cobra Starship's main purpose is to "[teach] hipsters to not take themselves so seriously and [tell] emo kids to stop being pussies."
And the group's sophomore album's message can be summed up with lyrics from "Guilty Pleasure:" "Shut your mouth, it's time to dance."
This could be the most danceable album of the year, from the big, dance-club beat of "Kiss My Sass" (in which Saporta claims to be "bringing sassy back") to the Fergie-esque spell-along chorus of "Damn You Look Good and I'm Drunk (Scandalous)." The keyboard-filled "Angie" is an atypically simple love song that recalls the "Off the Wall" (1979) era of Michael Jackson. "Pleasure Ryland" is a soul jam with a synthesized chorus and a retro groove.
Despite the derivative nature of the album, the band's light touch makes each sound seem new and irresistible. Produced and co-written by Fall Out Boy lead singer Patrick Stump, "¡Viva La Cobra!" has all the pop sensibility of hits like "Sugar, We're Going Down" without any of the Pete Wentz.
"Guilty Pleasure" is the leadoff single. It's an undeniably fun song - and the humble, lovable video doesn't hurt. It has all of the ingredients of a pop classic: a simple guitar riff, a keyboard line that's bound to worm its way into your ear, and an oft-repeated chorus that begs you not sing and shout along.
This album is neither perfect nor revolutionary. Fueled by Ramen-style music tends to have somewhat non-sensical, needlessly macabre lyrics, and there's no shortage of that here. It's hard to find meaning in lines like "You're the kind of girl I'd take home to mom/ If my mama was dead," no matter how catchy the accompanying melody.
It's also nearly impossible to say that there's a deep message in a song titled "Prostitution is the World's Oldest Profession (and I, Dear Madame, am a Professional)." But it's exactly that superficiality of music and lyrics that creates the upbeat and fun tone of the album.
The common theme on "¡Viva La Cobra!" seems to be the superficial and glamorous life of celebrities. "The City is at War," the rhythmic track that kicks off the album, tells a tale of the "young and rich/ with designer drugs and designer friends." The Latin-flavored "Smile for the Paparazzi" asks the "party queens" to "smile real wide." It's unclear whether Saporta derides this life or aspires to it, but it's obvious that to him, fun takes precedence over everything else.
Cobra Starship fans need not be ashamed. Even the most serious music listener shouldn't be devoid of humor all the time. At 38 minutes total running time, "¡Viva La Cobra!" is a tightly compiled package of digestible pop songs devoted to having fun and dancing like it's 1999. It's a fact that pop music needs someone every so often to remind everyone that the industry is, for the most part, about entertaining the world rather than saving it.
Saporta doesn't necessarily want Cobra Starship to be anyone's favorite band. He just wants it to be a guilty pleasure.
