Scissor Sisters: Night Work (Polydor)

Stuart Price is the go-to guy for dance music gold. His solo work under Les Rythmes Digitales was ahead of the curve at the time (although the lack of a follow-up has perhaps made it more legendary than it really ought to be considered) and his work with Zoot Woman was always infectious pop, but it was when he paired up with Madonna that he skyrocketed into the pop echelon. He’s taken his hand to other mainstream pop acts, but perhaps he’s met his match with Scissor Sisters, an act that appear to have benefited greatly from the focused collaboration that has ensued on Night Work. The singles that garnered SS their original attention were a mix of Bee Gees disco, 70s swagger and sweaty 80s dance music, but their 2nd album Ta-Dah! felt bottom-heavy with a lot of slow ballads, offset by some honkytonk piano riffs and a few really killer dance tracks (actually some of its overflow, included on a limited edition 2CD set, was superior to the album tracks). Night Work is the opposite, a very focused and almost methodically pop album. This is much to its advantage: it’s their best album yet. It has Price’s fingerprints all over it, but it doesn’t sound like he completely steered it – this is still by and large a Scissor Sisters album. It’s a much smarter and better approach to late 70s / early 80s discotheque pop compared to Goldfrapp’s recent Head First. There really isn’t a bad track on here, but they definitely saved the best for last: the gloomy, hazy “Invisible Light” that rounds out the album is the clincher.

Watch/listen: “Invisible Light”