Magic Hour [Scissor Sisters]

For a group that faced an existential crisis in the mid-2000s, Scissor Sisters has a remarkably consistent output. After releasing in 2003, 2005, and 2008, the band released Magic Hour in 2012.

I need new music for the gym. It has to be dance music, since dance music really lifts my workouts to a higher plane. Scissor Sisters fits the bill pretty well, with their upbeat tunes and dance rhythms. Can’t go wrong, right?

Magic Hour didn’t disappoint. I have listened to it all day, and have been spinning to Baby Come Home for a half hour. It’s all good fun.

You hear me unenthusiastic. True that. Scissor Sisters has been aging as an act faster than the years that have passed. Many of the songs on the album sound like they come from long-gone eras. Fun eras, sure, but we live in the time of Time Life’s Best Of series. Seriously?

Always prone to falling into falsetto, Jake Shears turns Inevitable into a Bee Gees song. Self Control sounds like the dreadful songs we used to listen to in dance clubs in the 90s. (Note: we had some wonderful dance songs in the 90s. Self Control sounds like one of the dreadful ones.)

There are pearls in this album, for sure. For instance, the mentioned Baby Come Home is very typical Scissor Sisters, and eminently fun. Let’s Have a Kiki sounds much more of the 2010s than the rest of the songs. San Luis Obispo is strangely timeless – some people will feel the need to brand it, ethnic.

The real pearl in the compilation, though, is the final song, Somewhere. It’s a ballad whose chorus reminds one of Abba’s best songs and demands to be sung to, with a sad guitar playing the background in lamenting riffs.