Critiques CD: Scissor Sisters | Magic Hour

Delirious New York disco-popsters Scissor Sisters remind us they rule the dancefloor with this at times uneven but eminently pleasurable fourth album. Calvin Harris and Diplo are among the all-star producing team who pack on the glitter, the gold but also the soul that ensures true divas always come out on top. Magic Hour covers a dizzying stretch of dancefloor territory, and it’s to be expected there’ll be many hits and a few misses. Bland lead single “Only the Horses” lends itself brilliantly to Virgin Radio high rotation lists, but the Sistahs more than make up for the occasionally grating dalliance with an uplifting Bee Gees-inspired ballad (“Inevitable”) and “Shady Love”, a knock-out club anthem featuring a fierce-as-ever Jake Shears rapping about this “bitch I met in Boston” as rising lyricist Azealia Banks commands the chorus. To all those who’ve preemptively declared Carly Rae Jepsen’s snooze-ready “Call Me Maybe” the song of the summer, I beg you to reconsider. Donna Summer is counting on us.