Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah Audio

Scissor Sisters
Ta-Dah
Album Listening Post

Scissor Sisters began 2004 as a little-known support act, and ended it as a pop phenomenon. Their eponymous debut album, which spawned a further four hits. As they began to turn their attention towards their sophomore album last summer, they were overwhelmed by the suddenly stifling weight of expectation and gnawing self-doubt. The mirror ball had stopped spinning but Scissor Sisters had a plan: to record a fun and optimistic dance song because a) the planet needed cheering up ("every time we turned on the TV it seemed the political situation in the world was getting worse and worse" says Babydaddy) and b) they needed cheering up.

Click here to listen to the latest album from the Scissor Sisters, 'Ta-Dah', out now!

The solution: I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - possibly the happiest-sounding song ever conceived about staying in and feeling miserable. The end result is, as ever, wildly eclectic, brilliant, life-affirming pop. There's the joyous glam-rock-disco shakedown She's My Man, which contains the intriguing line: "She strangles for a good time and she kills my self control."

Then there's the blissed-out, harmony-filled Might Tell You Tonight, and the widescreen epic Land of a Thousand Words, borne of the band's obsession with James Bond theme songs (Nobody Does It Better, Live and Let Die et al). Ana, meanwhile, spits out a lead vocal of her own on Kiss You Off. The Other Side might just make you cry.

The record is called, simply, Ta-dah. "It came to me in the middle of recording, and it wouldn't leave," says Jake.