A new Scissor Sisters album is always a cause for celebration. Throughout their career, which began with an idiosyncratic burst of wildly colourful dirty infectious pop when “Take Ya Mama” was unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 2004, they have defied many of the usual conventions of pop music.
Three of the members of the group made it abundantly clear they were gay from the word go – just in case the clip for their first single left you in any doubt whatsoever- their lyrics dared to bring a gay underground sensibility, complete with its attendant fashion and jargon, into mainstream music, and they weren’t afraid to release music that didn’t slavishly ape the latest sounds parading their way across the charts.
In short, they were very much their own people, and didn’t participate in the “wink wink nudge nudge” approach of many artists who allude to being outside the usual boundaries of pop acceptance but only as long it doesn’t offend the mums and dads, and the more conservative consumers of music. Scissor Sisters, whose very name refers to a sexual position employed quite successfully apparently by lesbians, didn’t try to be all things to all people, and wore their sexuality, and their unwillingness to be shoe horned into anyone’s idea of what would be pleasing or acceptable, on their sleeves in brazen glowing neon.
You couldn’t miss it, and aligned with a sound that was sassy, provocative, and innately danceable, they became the darlings of anyone who wanted music that dared to speak the unspoken, that wantonly trampled across boundaries, and cared not for the wagging of fingers and the tut-tutting of tongues by those watching on in disapproval from the sidelines.
A minor misstep with album two, Ta Dah!, which didn’t quite capture the burning zeitgeist of their self-titled first album, but still produced the chart-topping hit “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin'”, was followed by a third album, Night Work, which dispensed with even the slightest attempts at mainstream acceptability.
It was not so much that it was musically obtuse or sung in a weird dialect from the Himalayan Steppes (although if anyone could have made that work, it would have been this daring foursome from New York) but more that they deliberately decided to cater to their core “f**k you society” audience by delivering an album that celebrated the place they called home – the sleazy, dance-fueled world of gay nightclubs and the attendant world of glitz, glamour, and behind-the-scenes goings on that went with it.
Their confidence in their sexuality and their willingness to be honest and open about it was in full glorious display on this album, and it rarely paused for a second, dragging you along with it, on the assumption that if you were were listening to its insistent dance beats, that you also bought into the sassy sexual self-confidence that was its heart and soul. The group even emblazoned the cover with a Robert Maplethorpe-shot of pert lycra-clad buttocks, a clear sign they weren’t pulling any punches about the album’s themes, something Jake Shears was happy to own up to in this interview with nine-to-five.whereilive.com.au in 2010:
“The album is a celebration of being turned on, of sex and sexuality. Not only the joy of sexuality, it dabbles in the dangers of what happens beyond your limits as well. There’s a real dark streak.”
So what then have the fabulous New Yorkers conjured up for their fourth album?
Well, for a start they have ditched the down and dirty dancefloor vibe of Nightworks in favour of a sultry 70s retro funk soul vibe. The opening strains of “Baby Come Home” make it very clear that you need to grab your bell bottom jeans, button up your figure-hugging body shirt, and sashay your way down the street with all the gold-chained swagger you can muster.
It is a glorious slice of 70s funk and the perfect start to an album that showcases a refinement of the Scissor Sisters dance formula, precisely it sounds like classic Scissor Sisters. If there’re going to tinker with the sound, best to ease everyone into it with a song that reflects all the joyful exuberance, and gay sensibilities that the band has become renowned and much loved for.
While there are still some dance heavy tracks that follow the giddy fun of the opener, such as the Nightworks-vibe invoking beat of “Keep Your Shoes”and “Let’s Have a Kiki” (which utilises drag jargon for a bitchy gossip session) and “F*** Yeah”, which are nicely offset by the offbeat cleverness of “Shady Love”, the album does tend towards a quiet sound for the most part, with ballads clearly in the ascendancy.
Now, for a dance band this is not necessarily a bad thing. It gives the dance tracks a chance to breathe and stand alone, and as Scissor Sisters have proved in the past with tracks like “Land of a Thousand Words”, they can invest the less frenetic tracks with real depth of emotion, and an authentic sense of longing and hope.
And that is where the real strength of this album lies. We all know that the gang can create dance music for the ages, invest it with the sort of sexy appeal you want in music when you’re getting hot and heavy on the dance floor, and marry it with lyrics that reflects the bewitching quirks and kinks of queer culture. But what is often overlooked is that they also deliver ballads that ache with passionate longing, or celebrate the joy of being with that special someone. They may not feature them heavily in concert but they do have a knack for slower, meaningful tracks and it’s gratifying to see that they have chosen to wear their ballad hearts on their tight glittery dance floor ready sleeves.
One other thing that marks this album out as different to its predecessors is their willingness to work with other musicians like Calvin Harris, Diplo, the Neptunes and Boys Noize. It reflects the band’s willingness to work with artists they admire, and let them bring something of themselves to the Scissor Sisters table, which while in one sense isn’t needed since the group has such a unique sound, does enrich songs like “Only the Horses” on which Calvin Harris collaborated.
With lesser bands, this much collaboration smacks of a desperate quest to import talent to make up for deficiencies in their own. But this is clearly not an issue with Scissor Sisters who have never wanted for talent, artistic vision, or the ability to execute on it. This is a band that is so sure of what they want to say, or the way in which they want to say it that bringing others into their musical fold is merely an expression of wanting to have some creative fun… and have fun they do.
Admittedly the album won’t be to everyone’s taste since it is such a departure from Nightworks, but it has much to recommend it, and while it takes a little while longer to grow on you than past efforts, I will wager that many of the songs will be cycling their 70s fabulous way through your mind for quite a long time to come, and yes you may even dance a little while they’re doing it.