Universal

Smashing UK success notwithstanding, it was entirely possible that Scissor Sisters could've been nothing more than a pop musical footnote after the New York-based collective scored a pair of minor hits with its discofied cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" and "Take Your Mama."

Not that this cheeky lot reinvented the wheel: Jake Shears and company were deftly pilfering from a rich vein of sleek, glammed-out song craft honed by the Bee Gees, David Bowie and Elton John, whose influence is keenly felt on Scissor Sisters' superb sophomore record "Ta-Dah."
 
The irrepressible lead single "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" is a gleeful ode to being miserable at home on a Friday night while "I Can't Decide," "Ta-Dah"'s best cut, might be the jauntiest track ever recorded about homicide. Bursting at the seams with sounds that fell out of favor around the same time as slap bracelets, "Ta-Dah" is an album that seamlessly fuses swaggering discotheque beats with exuberant 21st-century sexuality.
 
- Preston Jones