Scissor Sisters - Night Work

I'm having difficulty starting this review, as I don't feel I can do it justice. This is the kind of album you search high and low for, one that you must compulsively hear from beginning to end. Every song is a high point. Even the couple I wasn't sure about to begin with have now become essential listening for me.
The third record from the Scissor Sisters is raunchier and grittier than their previous outings. Jake Shears has embraced the atmosphere of the Berlin nightlife with reckless abandonment, and, combining it with the band's pre-established explicit nature and striking sense of fun, has produced fantastic songs like Any Which Way - complete with backing vocals from Kylie Minogue, Running Out - a thumping song that reels you in, and the ironically catchy Something Like This, which describes a longing to listen to a particular song but an inability to remember the lyrics. The overvoice by Ian McKellen on the final track, Invisible Light, sees him in Gandalf-mode, adding tremendous power to the monologue of "Babylon, Where bricks of water and diamonds tower, Sailor's lust and swagger lazing in the moon's beams, Who's laser gaze penetrates this sparkling theater of excess and strobed lights, Painted Whores. Sexual Gladiators. Fiercely old Party Children..."
I'm even on the "Hells yeah it's GREAT!" side of the pro-/anti-Fire With Fire debate. Mum's fiercely against it, and claims that it's dull. Having heard it at Glastonbury first means that I can picture the audience swelling as the song swells, and I can hear Jake's voice echoing out over a packed stadium.
Overall, a mindblowing record, and it's great to see them stronger than ever.

Eliza Doolittle

After the outstanding support slot I saw Eliza Doolittle perform for Alphabeat in April, I confess I was a little worried that her studio album wouldn't live up to my high expectations, a fear that was increased by the very girly cover art. I had nothing to fear, this debut record is fantastic and has been the soundtrack of my summer.
The playful and colourful nature of the songs is charming, and demonstrate her theatre background clearly (she's the granddaughter of Sylvia Young), with the creation of scenarios and playing with the terminology such as in Police Car.
Both Missing and Pack Up involve excellent use of sampling from 60s and 40s tracks, showing an understanding of music that puts Professor Green's attempts to shame. Elsewhere economy-run themed Moneybox has hints of Kate Nash at her best, and A Smokey Room looks on shallow, consumerist lifestyles with sceptical eyebrow and mocking tone. On a sunny day, laidback and meditative So High truly transcends.