Music

The ‘difficult second album’ is a music industry truism that a band as acutely self-aware as Scissor Sisters will have been familiar with. Happily, they’ve approached it with typically endearing shirt-sleeve-rolling gusto. Of course, the obligatory ‘touring is lonely’ and ‘success is draining’ songs are present and correct (‘Might Tell You Tonight’ and ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’’ respectively). But these are cosying up next to, say, a honky-tonk cabaret-stopper about the trials of loving a male-impersonating pirate (‘She’s My Man’), or a song based on a dream about Paul McCartney (‘Paul McCartney’). Crucially, it’s also all as catchy as chlamydia.

Elsewhere, the band enthusiastically tackling electro-disco, techno-ballads, Weimar stomp and, with ‘Land Of A Thousand Words’, their attempt to craft a classic Bond theme. It’s a successful one too – its skyscraping harmonic breakdown would work perfectly with a Roger Moore action montage (and it would be Roger Moore – we’re talking ‘Nobody Does It Better’ and ‘Dance Into The Fire’ here). But the way in which this big finish cuts before outstaying its welcome embodies the combination of showiness and restraint, suggested by its non-emphasised title.

‘Ta-Dah’  sounds bigger than its predecessor, and a lot more confident, but still without trying too hard.  Most bands in the Sisters’ position would have splashed out on a raft of new musical playthings – from the sounds of things, SS have bought a Commodore 64 off Pete Waterman. As a result, they’ve made what is effectively the Album Of The Year, 1985. Had this been released in the era of Hi-NRG, The Blow Monkeys, ‘West End Girls’ and ‘Flashdance’,  it would today be hailed as a classic ranking alongside ‘Purple Rain’ or ‘Low Life’ or ‘Thriller’. Well, maybe not ‘Thriller’. Ultimately, ‘Ta-Dah’ is a great record by a great band. It would also make a great ‘Hair’-style musical, about a lonely pirate who seduces James Bond. Getting Paul McCartney to join the touring cast might work out prohibitively expensive though.