Album Review : Scissor Sisters - Night Work
- Written by Rosie Duffield
The Scissor Sisters were a breath of fresh air when they burst on to the scene in 2004. Fresh, funky, overtly camp and proud, they shook up the charts with their innuendo filled electro-pop that would make even Lady Gaga blush. Six years on and the polish is wearing off. After Jake Shears scrapped an album’s worth of songs, Night Work is the result of a sabbatical to Berlin that saw him take advice from Kylie (she sings backing vocals on ‘Any Which Way’) – but here some of the sparkle of earlier records has been lost.
The title track opens the album in true Scissor Sisters form; an upbeat, catchy number that showcases Shears’ trademark falsetto vocals. ‘Fire With Fire’ could be mistaken for an Elton John track – Shears’ vocals eerily similar at the beginning of the song – and it progresses into a dance track, but seems a bit lacklustre compared to other songs.
The aforementioned ‘Any Which Way’ is arguably the strongest track on the album – a true gay anthem (it features Kylie for goodness sake) it’s a cheeky disco number that’s full of sexual imagery: “no talk of commitment/when I receive a shipment/oh, I need express delivery” , for example, or “You don’t need reservations/no identification/to give me your relations/sting me like a bee...any which way/any which way/you better take me/any which way you can” .
Sex is a running theme throughout the album. Song titles like ‘Harder You Get’ and ‘Sex And Violence’ are but a subtlety compared to some of the lyrics: “I got some apples/if you want them you can grab them/but what I really want to do tonight/is toughen you up...Hell is my heaven/loaded weapon/don’t point that thing at me/unless you plan to shoot...”. At times it’s almost as if you’re eavesdropping on Shears’ innermost thoughts, which is not the most pleasant of experiences. Thankfully the music distracts from the lyrical porn on most occasions, and you have to listen really hard to catch what’s being sung.
The rest of the album is fairly forgettable – which is disappointing considering the former glory of the band. But Scissor Sisters have failed to live up to expectation on this occasion, leaving me wondering what the tracks that were discarded sounded like. If a pop princess like Kylie can’t salvage this dull collection of songs, it’s hard to see whether Scissor Sisters will ever return to the kingdom of kitsch they once ruled so well.