Scissor Sisters - Only The Horses

The flagging fortunes of Scissor Sisters' last album Night Work was a real lament of changing times and tastes in music - of one of the former stalwarts of radio airplay and sales figures being hung out to dry. It was a shame, because Fire With Fire is a masterpiece of songwriting while Invisible Light was a delightful piece of synth magic. But for all that it might have been a great album, it just didn't seem to connect with the public in the way the band once did. And much the same could be said for Azealia Banks collab Shady Love earlier this year. Again, a great track, but after all the initial hype, it seemed to fizzle away into nothingness come its actual release.

We have to hope Only The Horses will reverse affairs then, and on first impression, it does indeed sound like the kind of track with the potential to do so. With Calvin Harris on board for production duties, where the song excels is pushing the band simultaneously in a new, cooler direction, while canvassing all the glam-disco vibes that made their 2004 debut LP such a joy. With a Radio 1 premiere and the Calvin touch, there's the sense that Only The Horses is the distinct mainstream push the band really need to get them properly back on the public's radar, and it goes without saying that Only The Horses is quite the pop delicacy in itself - all icy and glacial, and as the Scissor Sisters always are, wonderfully flamboyant.

Only The Horses is released on the 14th May.

Scissor Sisters - Shady Love

Scissor Sisters' album Night Work deserved to do better. So much better. Despite critical appraise rushing in for it, it failed to set the charts alight in the way the band's debut did back in 2004 - going on to sell millions of copies. You could blame it on changing times and markets, but many agreed that the group's Elton John-esque piano numbers - for all their artistic merit - were just not what the public wanted to buy into.

And so, returning to the fun and flirty glory days of tracks like Filthy/Gorgeous, the group hit the club running with new single Shady Love - accompanied by a brilliantly surreal video (we love the paper-faced Madonnas). It's half Euro-inflected Ibiza club-smash, half WKD's in the air gloss-pop anthem - a terrific return to the band's New York discotheque roots.

Featuring Azealia Banks (hot up and coming star of the moment) on the track too is a stroke of genius, adding to its underground kudos, though quite why she's calling herself Krystal Pepsy here is unbeknownst to us. It sounds like something we'd like to drink though. Perhaps most shocking though is the fact that Jake Shears raps too - and surprisingly, it really works.

Shady Love is a track of so many component parts - all individually brilliant - but together, what they meld themselves into is undoubtedly the pop event of 2012 so far. The Scissor Sisters aren't just back, they're *properly* back... and they mean business. Shady Love - the sound of a future No. 1.

The Pierces - You & I

God bless The Pierces - for delivering one of the best albums of 2011. The feeling with You & I - their fourth record to date - is that as an album, it represents an intense personal relationship between us - the listener - and the two Pierce sisters; Allison and Catherine. You need only look at the tender beauty of tracks like The Good Samaritan to see that truth laid bare in their music.

You'll Be Mine, Love You More, Glorious - placed together in tandem here, we see the record's singles in a new light, and as the tour de force they really are. One of the reasons I've been so forward in championing The Pierces over the last year is that they deliver time and time again - and these three singles are proof of that.

You & I is by far one of the most consistent albums this year and in its fusing of indelible pop hooks, dreamy folk charm and the sheer personality of the sisters, it delivers a breathtaking winning streak from end to start.

Much has been made of the band's involvement with Guy Berryman of Coldplay, and his involvement is telling in the band's sound. In many ways, You & I is like a female companion piece to the very male majesty of Coldplay's Viva La Vida album - hints and essences of the 'Coldplay sound' glimmer everywhere across You & I; the finest of embellishments to an already highly accomplished record.

The sounds of 70s easy listening are back in a big way right now; just look at the success of Plan B and Adele. And if anything, The Pierces do it even better than these two, for their sound isn't attached to any contemporary music trend - instead, they are timeless; the album portraying a kind of alabaster beauty which never dulls or ages.

As such, You & I stands as a stellar collection of artistry. Functioning both as an ensemble of powerfully individual tracks - any of which could be a single - but also like a real 'album' of old. This is the story of The Pierces and it is writ for all to see in the tracks of this album.

If I had to pick a highlight, it'd be the epic Space & Time, with its simply divine chorus. The song just seems to open up in front of you like some kind of gateway to another dimension, the girls voices truly at their most angelic best here. We Are Stars, which previously served as a b-side to Love You More, is another standout.

You & I is available to buy from Amazon now.

Adele - Rolling In The Deep

It goes without saying that the standout track of Adele’s first album was the hypnotic, bewitching beauty of Hometown Glory. It had this mystical darkness to it with all the right dashes of an uplifting anthem at the same time. And now Adele is back with Rolling in the Deep and the best thing about it is that it captures that very same essence, but wraps it up in a funky, up-tempo beat. It struts its way onto your stereo and has No. 1 single written all over it.

When Adele was hitting the big-time in 2008, it was all about her vs. that other soulful starlet Duffy. At the time it looked like Duffy had easily won the battle – it was Duffy’s single Mercy after all that went on to become a massive global hit – but in 2010, with the stakes re-drawn, it looks like Adele might well and truly take the crown.

Those who loved the retro stylings of Adele’s debut album will find plenty to love here; it’s what she’s always done so well, plucking the best elements of the 60s and 70s and pairing them with glossy modern production and heartfelt lyrics. Those falsetto vocals in the chorus are pure Scissor Sisters, the best moments of Rolling in the Deep transporting you to some glittering disco-dancefloor before letting you fall back into the gentle embrace of Adele’s warm, enveloping vocals – which for the record, have never sounded better than they do on this track. There’s a new confidence to her, she means business with this track and no-one is going to get in her way.

Rolling in the Deep is released 17^th January.