CD Review: Scissor Sisters, "Ta-Dah"

3.5 Stars



The bad thing about releasing a huge cult hit as your debut is that you set an impossibly high bar for your follow-up. Were the Scissor Sisters’ “Ta-Dah” any other band’s second album there would be no chance of them being accused of a sophomore slump.

But in light of the niche popularity of their self-titled LP, “Ta-Dah” is bound to be something of a letdown to the fanbase they won with their previous disc of campy, cabaret-inspired pop.

It starts off right with a dance track ironically titled “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’.” Featuring a piano riff co-written and performed by Elton John, the piece is as masterfully derivative and flamboyant as anything on the Sisters’ previous album, sounding like vintage ABBA, Billy Joel, and Bee-Gees all at once.

It’s also reassuring to know the Sisters haven’t lost any of their sense of humor or their fascination for the sexually explicit. (It’s a small marvel “Ta-Dah” avoided the brand of a Parental Advisory label. Clearly the RIAA needs to catch up on their slang.) The Sisters’ lyrics are as playful and unconventional as ever.

That’s not to say the album is without missteps. “Paul McCartney,” for example, is a dismal low point. The song tries too hard to be this album’s “Filthy/Gorgeous,” with the band employing a beat similar to the previous hit’s and even giving vocalist Ana Matronic dialogue to moan out, just like last time. But without a catchy melody, it doesn’t come even close, sounding tossed-off instead of cohesive.

The album’s biggest problem is simply that it’s not as fun as its predecessor. While the first album was sometimes dark in its treatment of sex and drugs, “Ta-Dah” seems to anticipate a rapidly approaching Judgment Day with every song. The Sisters seem to have taken a page from Rufus Wainwright’s songbook, lacing every track with Biblical allusions and crises of faith.

“Intermission,” another collaboration with Sir Elton, at first sounds like a cheery 1920s recording until the music subtly darkens and Jake Shears begins accusing his listeners of “livin’ in sin” without “lambs to slaughter,” ignoring that “the afterlife’s a moment away.” Such lyrics would have been far out of place on the previous album.

What really stands out here, more even than the enjoyable music, are the head-scratching contradictions the Sisters create. They’ve always had a dark sense of humor, and they’ve always intended this to be an irony given that theirs is music fit for a drug-filled dance club. On “Ta-Dah,” though, the dichotomy is even stronger. It’s not just the humor that’s dark; now it’s the subject matter. The moment you realize that the pumping dance track “She’s My Man” is about the Bush administration’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, you’ll probably step on your date’s foot.

In almost every song, the lyrics don’t reflect the music at all, a point Shears makes plain with the opening track’s ironic title. The juxtaposition of the disco melodies and the heavy subject matter will probably polarize listeners into love-it-or-hate-it camps.

Should the Sisters be criticized for making the serious superficial? Or praised for the audacity of having fun in this dark twisted world? I don’t know, but there’s no better place to figure it out than on the dance floor.