Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, June 22, 2012 Page: 42 of 80
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music
Where's the magic?
Scissor Sisters wastes big-name talent (including their own) on 'Magic Hour'
The Scissor Sis-
ters aren't partic-
ularly shy about
proudly embroi-
dering a pastiche
of campy influ-
ences upon their
sleeves. There's
nothing wrong
with that...
when it works.
When fir ing on
all cylinders, the
group produces
an ecstatic cele-
bration of all
tilings campy,
disco-y and
dance-y. Which is
to say, they cele-
brate the huge in-
fluence gay culture has had on pop music — an
nfluence that, despite certain amounts of recog-
nition, has never really been given its due.
When it first broke, disco was met with a
wave of derision and contempt (some of it quite
violent, as in the record-burning frenzy at Disco
Demolition Night in Chicago's Komiskey Park
n 1979, where nearly 60,000 people set
a pyre of disco records in a blur of
beer, spittle and vitriol.) Self-ordained
"defenders" of "real" music, the Disco
Sucks movement may have seemed
comical at the time, but, as writer Ben
Myers recently wrote, "the unspoken
subtext was obvious: disco music was
for homosexuals and black people." In
the '70s, '80s and even much of the
'90s, that was not a compliment, and
as disco morphed into other styles of
dance music, homophobic and racist
derision segregated disco from "serious" popu-
lar music (as if there ever were such a thing).
It's all the more delicious, then, for us to find
out that the Scissor Sisters latest album, Magic
Hour, features collaborations with such hugely
influential and respected artists as Diplo, Azealia
Banks, Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams and Alex
Ridha — some of today's brightest talents in
dance/pop/hip-hop. Those slashes are inten-
tional; as house music continues to impress upon
hip-hop, and hip-hop continues to act as the pri-
mary musical influence in American culture, the
three remain interlocked, carrying the legacy of
disco into the mainstream —sweet revenge on
the Disco Suck-ers.
With such a pedigree of old-school and van-
guard melding, Magic Hour could have -
should have — lived up to its potential as the ul-
timate genre mash-up. Instead, the album disap-
points on many fronts.
At first, it works. The initial track, "Baby
MAGIC HOUR
Scissor Sisters
Casablanca Records
far
tal
BLUNT SCISSORS | The Scissor Sisters reach some high points with 'Magic Hour,'
but fail to keep that magic throughout the rest of the alburn.
Come Home," is a poppy jaunt through gay
dance territory, based on a funky little Elton
John-type piano riff with top notes of Wham!
melodies and disco falsettos. Sisters recall much
of that old-school Elton with their raw abandon
to dive emphatically nto their dance tracks. It in-
troduces an air of optimism.
The buzz fades quickly, however.
Track 2, "Keep Your Shoes," tr ies to
keep i t Prince-funky but can't com-
mit, and as the record unfolds, it be-
comes clear that Jake Shears and
Baby daddy (the primary songwriters
in the band) have failed to take ad-
vantage of the stable of talent on-
board. Instead, they rely perplexingly
on a handful of ballads, begging the
question, "If the hired hands have
masterminded several of the past
decade's best high-tempo dancefloor
bangers, why waste these talents on a slow
jam?"
Still, the high points are hopeful, and point to-
ward a direction where the hybrid dance genre is
going. The Harris and Kidha-produced "Only
the Horses" finds that addictive little groove
which holds house and disco together, where the
itermingling of organic sound (simple, effective
piano chords) and digital (tight drum machine
beats and dancefloor-friendly synth lines) bob
and weave around Shears' soaring vocals. (If s
no surprise this is the album's lead single.)
'Only the Horses" is disco-y and house-y, yes,
and in that it is the sound of the past. It also is
the sound of the future, one in which music "for
homosexuals and black people" rules the air-
waves instea d of being ridiculed on them. Yet it
bears the burd en of being one of too few strong
tracks on here; if s unfortunate that the rest of
Magic Hour doesn't quite make it there.
—Jonana Widner
42 dallasvoice.com
06.22.12
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Wright, John. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, June 22, 2012, newspaper, June 22, 2012; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth308872/m1/42/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.