Scissor Sisters: Scissor Sisters : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The biggest new band in England once again hails from New York. Scissor Sisters draw their influences from musical genres long banished from American radio -- art rock, glam rock, Seventies disco, eccentric singer-songwriter pop and Broadway show tunes. When the Sisters evoke Elton John on the wryly boogieing "Take Your Mama," they tackle the Honky Chateau era that not even Sir Elton attempts anymore. The mixed-gender quintet's cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" is ripe with Bee Gees falsetto and Donna Summer production values, dancing on a thin line between eeriness and euphoria, while much of the rest suggests what Supertramp might've sounded like had they honed their sensibility in tranny bars. What makes these multilevel pastiches more than cheeky cutups is a genuine musicality that hearkens back to the days of gatefold album covers and long-term careers: Whether rocking a dance floor or orchestrating a lonely piano ballad, Scissor Sisters write great songs.