Scissor Sisters

• Scissor Sisters [Universal, 2004] B+
• Ta-Dah [Universal/Motown, 2006]
• Night Work [Downtown/Polydor, 2010] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Scissor Sisters [Universal, 2004]
Great start: two songs in which gender spirals down the rabbit hole are followed by a Pink Floyd cover done Bee Gees-style. These star-time party boys never get brasher, funnier, or better, and their midtempo Elton isn't ironic enough. But this has more pride than competing gay masscult takeovers, which makes it more liberating for us all. Bless them for lending a queer ear to an ominously straight year. B+

Ta-Dah [Universal/Motown, 2006]

Night Work [Downtown/Polydor, 2010]
No love songs, in case you had any doubts--sex songs exclusively, which usually involve human connection and occasionally hint at provisional commitment but rarely evince anything as quotidian as affection because the quotidian is for day people. In short, Clubworld without morning-after moralizing. But not without a morning after--for an early riser like me, the definitive track is "Running Out," a scarcity song more desperate than any Bruce Springsteen could write because Springsteen refuses to indulge in despair. Good for him, I agree. But unfortunately, despair is very much with us. It'll blow up before it recedes. And this music is intensely committed to escaping it. A-