‘A post-millennial queer pop bible’: Scissor Sisters’ debut album re-reviewed
The genre-hopping, popper-sniffing debut of New York glam rockers Scissors Sisters is something of a bible for post-millennium queer pop. Forged from the ashes of polished 70s disco, merged with the DIY sensibilities of 00s garage rock, the five-piece’s self-titled debut is regarded as one of the best pop records of all time. The eclectic fivesome, fronted by lead vocalists Jake Shears and Ana Matronic (real name Ana Lynch), cut through a wave of landfill indie rock flooding the charts to create a monster hit.
Album opener ‘Laura’ is a punchy, piano-led bop, setting the sonic template for the LP, which was: anything goes, as long as it’s catchy. Next single, ‘Take Your Mama’, inspired by Shears’ coming-out experience, dials up the camp as he takes his mother on a big gay night out. “We’ll get her jacked up on some cheap champagne / We’ll let the good times all roll out.” Still a staple of gay clubs and Christmas parties, the song was the band’s first big international hit. ‘Filthy/Gorgeous’, a kinky, high-energy stomper, took the band further up the charts, peaking at no. 5 in the UK.
The band’s observations of queer life continue with ‘Lovers in the Backseat’ and ‘Tits on the Radio’. “Dark room Danny can’t see with the lights turned out / Black haired t***** counts sheep with her bed turned down”. It’s worth noting that, in 2004, vital conversations around transgender slurs were yet to be had. What Scissor Sisters’ debut offers is an insight into being queer in the early 00s, when marriage equality was still a way off and the safest thing you could do was ‘fit in’. The Sisters challenged this.
“They pay tribute to psychedelic pioneers Pink Floyd with the disco-drenched cover”
On tracks like ‘Return to Oz’, the band go full Bowie as they tell a heart-breaking story of a lost city where its inhabitants are dying. Deviating from themes of partying and self-discovery, this sobering ballad examines life as a queer person once the party’s over. Elsewhere, they pay tribute to psychedelic pioneers Pink Floyd with the disco-drenched cover, ‘Comfortably Numb’. Sounding like a one-man Bee Gees (albeit with less hair), it’s a subtler moment where Shears really shines.
With the odd exception, not since Boy George and Pete Burns minced about onstage decades before had a pop act been so bravely queer-adjacent in their presentation. Frontman Shears was as gay as they come, appearing half-naked on the front cover of Attitude in 2004 with the headline: “Sex, Drugs, Cock & Roll”. Things certainly got gayer in their discography, with career-defining singles like ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’’ and ‘Let’s Have a Kiki’ still to come, but Scissor Sisters’ debut is the blueprint for doing it on your own terms. Pop’s better off for it.
The post ‘A post-millennial queer pop bible’: Scissor Sisters’ debut album re-reviewed appeared first on Attitude.
