Sex, truth, honesty in Scissor Sisters’ return

By Ines Min

The flashing lights in a club stream over the throbbing crowds as bodies mash together in rhythmic dance. The beating speakers overwhelm all sound, rendering conversation useless ― not that you’d be talking anyway. Everyone is singing along to the music, the lyrics of which speak both to the poetics and harsh reality of life and sex. The song selection of choice: the Scissor Sisters.

Chances are if you haven’t heard of the Scissor Sisters, you’ve heard at least one of their tunes on the radio, a TV commercial or in a film. This U.S. band, whose hits include ``I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’’’ and ``Take Your Mama,’’ became synonymous with a blend of homage to ‘70s, ‘80s dance music that is impossible to ignore the beat of.

Four years after their sophomore release, the group has returned with their third album ``Night Work.’’ Released in late June, the album has had a chance to make its rounds with the critics and sink in with the masses. The verdict? The Scissor Sisters have found their home, revealing a more realistic ― and party-loving ― side to them that was bound to come out. (The band name is, after all, a sexual position.)

``We were much inspired by music from the 90’s, and by dance like `Happy Mondays,’’’ Ana Matronic, vocalist and sole female of the group, said in a phone interview about the release. (Every member of the band has a clever stage name.) ``And we always take inspiration from Pink Floyd, no matter what, and they were very inspiring for the song `Invisible Light’ which has a very psychedelic energy to it.’’

The group ― who re-envisioned Pink Floyd’s ``Comfortably Numb’’ so thoroughly into a high-pitched, disco mantra it was impossible to pass without being stopped, awestruck ― specializes in a brand of music that is indeed psychedelic, but also straight-up dance-hearty. It’s this combination that has earned them a title for creating empowering anthems since 2004.

With ``Night Work’’ the Scissor Sisters take a step into a real subgenre that has resulted in critics and fans alternately praising and panning them, a category defined often too simply: music for gay dance clubs.

``I think Jake pulled his sexuality back on the last record, though he didn’t want it to,’’ Matronic said of frontman and lead songwriter Jake Shears. ``We really wanted to make music for everybody and we didn’t want to be limited by the fact that a couple of guys in the band are gay and open about it.’’

The change was partly a result of the album’s difficulties during the creative period.

After scrapping a year and a half’s worth of material, the group took a break from the trying mental process of compiling a new album, with Shears hopping on a plane to Berlin for a respite. After delving into the club culture there, the group reunited anew, refreshed and inspired from the same genres of music that fueled their previous albums, but armed with an honesty previously sheathed for the sake of the audiences.

The music developed to become the purpose and the outlet of Shears and the other members. ``I think there is real desire to explore classic songwriting on the last album and have it be more universal,’’ she added. ``On this album Jake is free to express himself. He really wanted to make a sexy album, a sexy party record.’’

Characterized by explicit lyrics and double entendres, but also political messages recounting the troubles facing young teens today _ both hetero and homosexual _ the Scissor Sisters’ latest is a package that seems charged with sensitive issues. Though it bares its teeth with the gritty truth, the release still manages to unite the people, sexual references and all.

``This album is about being turned on ― not just sexually, that can be mentally ― and this album is about freedom,’’ Matronic said. ``Freedom to express yourself. I hope that whoever listens to this album will be inspired to create and get freedom of their own mind.’’

The record ― which even features the husky voice of one Sir Ian McKellan who sings of ``sailor’s lust and swagger lazing in the moon’s beams,’’ ― may not be every listener’s cup of tea, but it’s hard to avoid the sway of hips that comes naturally with the music’s rhythms.

``I think we really enjoy making dance music,’’ Matronic said, when asked about the future of the band. ``Personally, I hope we stay on the dance floor. But you never know what we can do. We could do a country album sometime, I’m sure,’’ she said with a laugh.

The Scissor Sisters plans on touring in Asia next year.

``I want to come to Korea for a tour and the food,’’ Matronic said. ``Next summer we’re going to do lots of festivals, as many as we can. I hope that there is a Korean festival that we can play.’’

inesmin@koreatimes.co.kr