Scissor Sisters: Scissor Sisters

By REBECCA BARRY

(Herald rating: * * * * *)



First impressions paint this New York five-piece as the band from hell: they look like the Village People, sing like the Bee Gees and their album art is as kitsch as a Salvador Dali tattoo.

Yet the Scissor Sisters - four men and one woman - put back into pop the freak and fabulous, in ways previously only hinted at by the Cramps, TISM and the Darkness.

Bulging with camp, falsetto vocals, retro rock guitars and gaudy, disco keyboards, the songs are whipped into modern-day shape with glossy electro production and a subversive wit. These qualities will probably render them a novelty act, a fashion trend or a joke band but, just as frontman Jake Shears repeats in his distinctive twang, "There ain't no tits on the radio", there's more to this lot than their frivolous image.

Just listen to Take Your Mama, a brilliant piece of 70s-style funk-pop that could have been penned by Elton John, Comfortably Numb, a clever, queer-eye cover of the Pink Floyd song that turns those haunting "Hellos" into comic fodder (Roger Waters loves it, apparently), or Mary, a plaintive piano ballad that could have been a hit for Robbie Williams in the mirror ball era.

They are also at their best doing thumping, sexually charged dance beasts (Filthy/Gorgeous) and atmospheric Bowie-esque numbers (Return to Oz ). With their multiple historical references, they're not what you'd call cutting edge but the Scissor Sisters are still the sharpest tools to come out of the shed this millennium.

Label: Universal