Artist: Scissor Sisters
Album: S/T
Label: Universal
Tracks: 11
Length: 43:00
Review by: Mike “Puffy Amiyumi” Leech

Chances are you've already heard the Scissor Sisters. Their flamboyant onstage personas have earned them quite a bit of exposure recently, and their disturbingly catchy single "Take Your Mama" has received some considerable airplay as well. And even if you haven't heard these guys yet, chances are you have heard Elton John, George Michael and David Bowie before, and so in a roundabout way you have already heard the Scissor Sisters.

This stylish NYC fivesome has made quite a career out of gender-bending rock icon mimicry, especially considering the fact that this “buzzed to high heaven” full-length of theirs happens to be the only one they’ve ever recorded. So the question is, "Why would anyone want to listen to these guys if all they do is blatantly rip off other artists?" Well, why do we listen to the Strokes, Franz Ferdinand and Interpol? Because they write good songs, that's why.

Catchy tunes like the pulsating, danceable “Laura,” the very ELO “Mary,” the tongue-in-cheek, Bee Gee-ish reworking of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” and the spaced-out, new wave “Lovers in the Backseat” are stunning evidence of the Sisters’ phenomenal pop craftsmanship. Unfortunately the album’s last three, painfully average tracks almost ruin it for the rest of them. But it’s hard not to forgive a band this fun. Despite a few minor rough edges, the Scissor Sisters have a pretty rock-solid debut on their professionally manicured hands.