Elsewhere, you find a jolly, pumping piano line that is actually the handiwork of Elton John, but more obviously recalls his less hip 1970s contemporaries - Gilbert O'Sullivan perhaps - as well as a falsetto melody that seems a close relation to Leo Sayer's You Make Me Feel Like Dancin', and, most unsettling of all, a syn-drum tom-tom roll that recalls that deathless classic of the post-punk era, The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Tight Fit. Among them, Abba stand out by dint of being easily the most credible. It offers a plethora of musical influences in a matter of seconds. It's tempting to wonder what Waters would make of the first bars of I Don't Feel Like Dancin', the current single from the Scissor Sisters, who made their name by releasing a preposterous disco reinterpretation of his earnest, soul-searching ballad Comfortably Numb. "From the first bar I ever heard by Abba," he snapped, clearly mortally offended, "I was an ex-listener." Offering a salutary reminder that, in an age of Guilty Pleasures, some areas of the rock establishment remain immune to the habit of reappraising what was once deemed irrevocably naff, Waters cut the journalist short. Should the Sisters be criticized for making the serious superficial? Or praised for the audacity of having fun in this dark twisted world? I don’t know, but there’s no better place to figure it out than on the dance floor.R ecently, a bold journalist asked Roger Waters if he had ever heard Abba's swansong The Visitors, an album he felt bore unlikely similarities to Pink Floyd. The juxtaposition of the disco melodies and the heavy subject matter will probably polarize listeners into love-it-or-hate-it camps. In almost every song, the lyrics don’t reflect the music at all, a point Shears makes plain with the opening track’s ironic title. The moment you realize that the pumping dance track “She’s My Man” is about the Bush administration’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, you’ll probably step on your date’s foot. It’s not just the humor that’s dark now it’s the subject matter. On “Ta-Dah,” though, the dichotomy is even stronger. They’ve always had a dark sense of humor, and they’ve always intended this to be an irony given that theirs is music fit for a drug-filled dance club. What really stands out here, more even than the enjoyable music, are the head-scratching contradictions the Sisters create. “Intermission,” another collaboration with Sir Elton, at first sounds like a cheery 1920s recording until the music subtly darkens and Jake Shears begins accusing his listeners of “livin’ in sin” without “lambs to slaughter,” ignoring that “the afterlife’s a moment away.” Such lyrics would have been far out of place on the previous album. The Sisters seem to have taken a page from Rufus Wainwright’s songbook, lacing every track with Biblical allusions and crises of faith. While the first album was sometimes dark in its treatment of sex and drugs, “Ta-Dah” seems to anticipate a rapidly approaching Judgment Day with every song. The album’s biggest problem is simply that it’s not as fun as its predecessor. But without a catchy melody, it doesn’t come even close, sounding tossed-off instead of cohesive. The song tries too hard to be this album’s “Filthy/Gorgeous,” with the band employing a beat similar to the previous hit’s and even giving vocalist Ana Matronic dialogue to moan out, just like last time. “Paul McCartney,” for example, is a dismal low point. That’s not to say the album is without missteps. Clearly the RIAA needs to catch up on their slang.) The Sisters’ lyrics are as playful and unconventional as ever. (It’s a small marvel “Ta-Dah” avoided the brand of a Parental Advisory label. It’s also reassuring to know the Sisters haven’t lost any of their sense of humor or their fascination for the sexually explicit. It starts off right with a dance track ironically titled “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’.” Featuring a piano riff co-written and performed by Elton John, the piece is as masterfully derivative and flamboyant as anything on the Sisters’ previous album, sounding like vintage ABBA, Billy Joel, and Bee-Gees all at once. But in light of the niche popularity of their self-titled LP, “Ta-Dah” is bound to be something of a letdown to the fanbase they won with their previous disc of campy, cabaret-inspired pop. Were the Scissor Sisters’ “Ta-Dah” any other band’s second album there would be no chance of them being accused of a sophomore slump. 3.5 Stars The bad thing about releasing a huge cult hit as your debut is that you set an impossibly high bar for your follow-up.
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