Scissor Sisters - 'Ta Dah' (Polydor) Released 18/09/06

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In 2004 Scissor Sisters shocked a music industry suffering from a post-Strokes cool overload by reminding listeners that it was ok just to have to have fun. Four outrageous gay guys and a self proclaimed "drag queen trapped in woman's body" delivered a jolt to the heart of an aloof, electroclash listening, mullet wearing nation by dragging intelligent, literate pop back from the denizens of a Yates Friday night to the dancefloors of indie discos across the country. It wasn't just the fact that they had the all-out balls to cover Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb' in falsetto, or that they didn't seem to give a damn what anyone thought of them, the thing that really stuck was that EVERYONE seemed to like them, and they were duly punished for being so damn populist by radio ubiquity and enormous album sales.

Since then, they've appeared at Live 8, befriended Elton John and readied their second album, ‘Ta-Dah’. It would seem impossible that a band can replicate such stratospheric success with their 'difficult'somophore effort, but if any band can carry it off with panache, and a healthy dose of glamour, you'd stick money on it being the 'Sisters. And, is it any better than their first? In a word – yes. ‘Ta-Dah’ is like their eponymous debut album turned to 11. More camp. More strings. Lusher production. Everything on this record cries "We've come to take your disco!" from the stomping, Elton John written single 'I Don't Feel Like Dancing' to the Kylie bounce of 'Kiss You Off' and the cheesy 80's synths of 'Paul McCartney'.

Instead of spending the last two years living off their royalties in gay clubs across the globe, Scissor Sisters have honed their trade, cutting back on some of the fluff that disappointed buyers of their first album, and in collaborating with Elton, they've hit the pop jackpot at just their second attempt. Already on to a winner – they can get away with stuff no other artist on the planet since Queen can –producer Babydaddy just throws a whole lexicon of pop, disco, cheese and MOR rock at this record, and every last drop of the sickly gloop sticks. It's not just plain, good natured fun though - the gloriously sax-drenched slowy 'The Other Side' and the outrageously camp banjo-led 'I Can't Decide' are stadium sized pop tunes with the lyrical bite of a Noel Coward play – and worried parents will find their kids bouncing along to gems like "Smells like something I've forgotten/ Curled up dead and rotten".

But still… apart from a few songs, there aren't many that have the immediate catchiness of 'Take Your Mama' and 'Filthy Gorgeous.' It's not that Scissor Sisters have got worse at all – this is still a pop album a cut above most others, but their strength in 2003 was surfing a zeitgeist no-one saw coming, rather than creating a complex and compelling album. In ‘Ta-Dah’ they've done that, and, hopefully the listening public will take to this slightly edgier record as they took to the first.