New Queer Tunes from Scissor Sisters and Gossip
[caption id="attachment_45148" align="aligncenter" width="604" caption="Gossip's Beth Ditto serves fireball realness"][/caption]
This may be the gayest week for music since Tchaikovsky wrote a dance for the Sugar Plum Fairy. First, Rufus Wainwright dropped a new video, and then both Gossip and Scissor Sisters unleashed new tunes.
Here's the quasi-religious video for Gossip's "Perfect World," a Pat Benatar-worthy power ballad from their upcoming album A Joyful Noise.
I love Gossip, and for me, this is the strongest single they've ever released. It sounds like they're taking their sound to a polished, 80s-chick-rock place, but without sacrificing the passion of songs like "Heavy Cross" and "Fire/Sign." And that's fine by me. If Beth Ditto becomes this decade's Benatar or Ann Wilson (from Heart), then everyone should rejoice.
Next, here's a lyric video for "Only The Horses," the piping fresh new single from Scissor Sisters that introduces their album Magic Hour. It's co-produced by Calvin Harris, who's single "Feel So Close" has been blowing up recently and who also produced Rihanna's "We Found Love." (Perhaps you heard that Rihanna song. It was on the radio a few times.)
I'm not sure I like this song as much as "Fire With Fire," the first single from their last album, but then again, nobody liked that song except me. "Only the Horses" is pleasant enough, but is it as distinctive as Scissor classics like "Take Your Mama," "It Can't Come Quickly Enough," or "I Don't Feel Like Dancing?"
Mark Blankenship has written about pop music for The New York Times and NPR. He's on Twitter as @IAmBlankenship. Gossip and Scissors Sisters really helped him survive grad school.