Night Work - Scissor Sisters - Album Review
Fresh from a break in recording, Scissor Sisters this week came out with their third album, Night Work. Following on from the success of second album Ta-Dah which was darker than its title and the opening track, the ultimate in oxymoron song titles, suggested. Ta-Dah was a fabulous progression from the band, as their eponymous debut saw slightly un-tamed talent at times going wild, sandwiched between Pink Floyd covers and knock-offs, and the piano ballad which they can pull out. After these two albums, the band had two choices. Either go back to their origins and focus on sheer energy to create good songs, or carry on from the second album using stuff that most "rockier" bands wouldn't turn their nose up.
Two goes at writing the album subsequently produced neither of these, as Night Work posesses very little in common with the bands preious efforts. Night Work has been an album which is something of a grower, starting out as horribly repetitive but becoming distinguishable the more you listen to it. Whether or not this is a good thing remains to be seen however, as the work does seem fairly sub-par once you get into it all. The opening title track is a hidden gem, one song which fulfills the promise put out in all the various launch publicity: that it will get you dancing. Lead single Fire With Fire is by far the best song present, ranking up with the best of the bands material. The only problem with using a song like this as a lead single is that it draws attention to it, thus making you focus on how badly the rest of the songs stack up against it. Sex and Violence seems to be the only song that acknowledges that Ta-Dah even happened, combining the edgier sound of that album with the new club feel, and it works. Sadly, it's one of the few instances where it does.
Despite the rather apparent message put out by a band whose name is derived from a lesbian sex act, Night Work seems very confused in many ways. Bear in mind, I don't mean lyrics-wise. There's stuff in here that would make Jarvis Cocker cringe, even when he was in the middle of writing His 'n' Hers. The influences however have came a long way from hazy images of Syd Barrett floating around 20 feet off a stage. They have gone back in time however, as all of the songs are heavily influenced by the New York club scene of the 80's. There's everything here, Erasure, Eurythmics, and any 2 piece synth pop group that ever appeared on Top of the Pops. Closing track Invisible Light had better have seen some royalties go to whoever composed the backing beat for Confusion by New Order (presumably Steve Morris, though i've no idea). There's nothing wrong with being influenced by the best artists of a genre, but the main problem here is that for most of the songs, the band never seem to know which way they want to pull, and the songs end up seeming very thinly-spread, with no big tasty mouthfuls for you to really get stuck into. It gets even worse on a track like Harder You Get, which seems to have taken a wrong turn at around 1983 and started channeling Journey, going by the guitar work. This, much like a lot of the rest of the album, seems over the top and out of place. And you know that if you can describe the Scissor Sisters as too over the top, then something has gone badly wrong.
To sum up, this album is a disappointment. Like so many albums that can be classed as such, it's the stand-out moments that leave you feeling deflated, because you know what the band are actually capable of. Let's hope that they can properly channel the potential here for the next album.
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Next week: No idea when it first came out, but as a favour for a friend, i'll be doing Is This It, This Is It or Whatever It Is Called by The Strokes
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