New York’s Number 1 purveyors of retro-camp glam are back with their fourth album. As the follow-up to the hyper-sexualised disco-pop of 2010’s ‘Night Work’, an album which re-confirmed their commitment to night time hedonism but skimped on the quality control. Lead singer Jake Shears, has protested that this is the Scissor Sisters' most consistent album to date. If anything the opposite is true. Much of ‘Magic Hour’ is hopelessly patchy, stitched together from a million different ideas.
‘Keep Your Shoes’ tacks the melody of ‘Get Ur Freak On’ to a
stepping house beat and some of Jake’s most aggressive lyrics, while ‘Let’s
Have A Kiki’ is an atrocious Ana Matronic led spoken word piece. Apparently a
‘kiki’ is a late night after-party but although it fits the theme of fading New
York glamour it’s hard to see how anyone could have fun listening to it.
Current single ‘Only The Horses’ canters along with a
melange of fluorescent synths and beats and is probably their best shot at
repeating the chart success of ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ but the Calvin Harris
production manages to smother the group’s charm. As possibly the only group in
which the second frontperson’s role is primarily to rein in the extravagance of
the other, it should be impossible for Jake Shears to sound like he’s anonymous,
but to Harris he seems to be just another ingredient in the mix rather than the
flamboyant and charismatic peacock feather-clad embodiment of Scissor Sisters
disco riot.
In fact, the mess of producers involved in ‘Magic Hour’ is a
problem that runs through the entire record. With Calvin Harris on the
aforementioned single, Pharrell Williams on electronic ballad ‘Inevitable,
Madonna collaborator Stuart Price on two tracks and electro-house star, Alex
Ridha (aka Boys Noize) scattered across the rest to say that its uneven would
be an understatement. If ‘Magic Hour’ were a city it would undoubtedly be San
Francisco, but San Francisco in 1906 just after a major earthquake. In the past
the quickfire leaps between glam, disco and electro-pop were united by its
frontman’s infectious presence but here the group seem incapable of maintaining
a style or mood for two tracks in a row.
Luckily there are still a few great moments that make you
realise why Scissor Sisters were so easy to love in the first place. Opener
‘Baby Come Home’ takes every musician fond of a falsetto (Elton and the Bee
Gees for starters) and mixes them together into a frothy milkshake of 70’s
piano, vocoder and disco harmonies. There’s a whiff of ‘Ta-Dah’s kitsch, but
the cherry on top is Jake’s Prince-style vocal tics in the breakdown. Its
chorus of ‘Baby come home to me’ feels sweet and heartfelt amongst Magic
Hour’s more robotic moments. Even better is teaser track ‘Shady Love.’ Guest
star Azealia Banks nails the driving chorus in a star-making turn reminiscent
of Nicki Minaj’s guest spot on Kanye West’s ‘Monster’, but its Jake’s bonkers
lyrics about partying with a girl who’s ‘gonna vote for Obama and she likes to
dance to Madonna’ which demonstrate just how fun Scissor Sisters can be when
they really cut loose.
Another of ‘Magic Hour’s quirks is its use (or should that
be overuse?) of silly sound effects. Got a song about tropical beaches? Let’s
have some waves! A party closed down? Police Sirens! Moments like this can be
deployed cleverly but Scissor Sisters seem unwilling to let their audience do
any of the work. For a band who thrive by offering an anything-goes, all-inclusive
enclave, shoving these effects heavy-handedly down their audiences throat just
serves to raise a barrier between band and their fans. Played back-to-back with
their previous records the contrast is even more distinct. Their debut ‘Scissor
Sisters’ is irreverent, funny and inherently likeable. Magic Hour is more of an
awkward 45 minutes.
Max Sefton
