Cobra Starship surfaced in 2006 as part of the well-marketed Snakes on a Plane package, and the band's spiky pop-punk found a quick home among cult film buffs and
Samuel L. Jackson fanatics. It was easy to like this first incantation of
Cobra Starship -- especially the breakout single "Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)" -- as the band was part of something fun, flashy, and consciously campy.
¡Viva la Cobra! arrived one year after that emergence, and what had begun as something harmlessly fun (replete with eye-candy cameos by
William Beckett and
Maja Ivarsson) had turned into a full-fledged band. While the dance-pop numbers here end up repeating the same steps in an attempt to perfect the one routine
Cobra Starship know how to do, there's enough melody to satisfy most lingering fans, and
Cobra Starship get a major leg-up from
Fall Out Boy's
Patrick Stump, who doubles as producer and co-writer for all 11 tracks. ~ Andrew Leahey