December 2012, Spindle Magazine Issue 6
Somewhere, inside all of us, is that person we know we’re destined to be, if only we were given the chance. Sure, the world sees you as the 40-year-old postal worker who still lives with his mother and suffers from an unfortunate amount of flop sweat, but you know better. You know deep down you’re Tony, the cruise ship singer who cuts a swathe through the scores of middle aged women, melting hearts with a single thrust of those gyrating pelvic muscles. Tony, I see you.
Inside my head? Oh darling, I’m fabulous. I roll around on shag carpeting in platform heels, in which goldfish never cease to swim and, under the light of a giant disco ball, I shimmy. I shimmy the night away. Inside, I’m all kinds of filthy arse slappingly gorgeous. So when Babydaddy promises me more energy, more dancing, “more Scissor Sisters,” well inside, I’m all in a tizzy: I just don’t know if I have enough body glitter.
With an album that boasts more collaborations than Paris Hilton’s personal life (Azealia Banks, Calvin Harris and Diplo to name but a few) Magic Hour sees Scissor Sisters do what they do best: flamboyant, disco pop in all its chart topping glory. “We wanted to make a really fun album,” Babydaddy explains. “A lot of people, they come back to us for a certain reason.”
The fun translates. Sure it has its moments when it misses the mark (The Secret Life Of Letters a drag of a ballad), but when they get it right (Baby Come Home and Shady Love right up there with I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ and Take Your Mama) you forget all that, ‘cause you’re too busy shaking it like a Polaroid picture. Most of all, after their dalliance with dance music over trashy 70’s inspired pop with third album Night Work, Magic Hours feels like a true Scissor Sisters album and a return to the ethos of their eponymously titled debut, which remains one of the best selling albums in the UK. “We definitely feel like we’re making a classic Scissor Sisters album, which means we’re going all over the place and hitting all kinds of different songs and we’re not ashamed to be doing any of that.”
It also means they’re unlikely to be feeling much lovin’ from the mainstream in the US; it’s hardly surprising that a country that has a Mormon running for president would be reserved in the face of an outrageously camp outfit, who are named after a lesbian sex position and flashed clenched buttocks on an album cover. Their relationship has always been a rocky one, with Wal-Mart (ya know, that shop that sells guns?) refusing to stock Scissor Sisters and the band receiving no MTV airplay. They acknowledge it in Best Of Me, singing, “You may not hear this on MTV/No big deal,” and Babydaddy says that it’s something they’ve come to accept. “We’re not exactly the kind of thing that goes on the radio.”
Still, when they previewed Let’s Have A Kiki on Spotify in certain areas, the US wasn’t one of the countries on the list. Thus it’s with a fitting amount of irony that they were chosen to represent the US with their Olympics show over here.
By all accounts, this time round, “We’re putting on a real fun show.” It’s enough to make me want to find out what else is in Ms Matronic’s magic bag…
So sure, let your eyes skim over me when you pass me by; inside, I’m in sequins.
