Scissor Sisters are gearing up to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut album, which was the UK’s best-selling album of 2004, with a new reissue on limited edition colored vinyl.
The album features fan favorites such as “Take Your Mama,” “Laura,” and “Filthy/Gorgeous.” Since then, the album has sold nearly four million copies globally, has 300 million streams to date, and won “Best International Album” at the 2005 Brits.
Scissor Sisters formed in New York in the early 2000s with Jake Shears and Ana Matronic on vocals, multi-instrumentalist Babydaddy, Del Marquis on lead guitar/bass and Randy Real (who replaced Paddy Boom) on drums. They first rose to prominence on the release of their Grammy-nominated and chart-topping disco version of “Comfortably Numb” and their subsequent 2004 debut album.
Scissor Sisters have also collaborated with a number of other iconic pop musicians, including Elton John and Kylie Minogue and these particular collaborations have been received positively by both critics and other notable figures. In 2004, Bono, lead vocalist of rock band U2, described Scissor Sisters as “the best pop group in the world.”
With a name like Scissor Sisters, the band never pandered to anyone outside the audience that made them famous in the first place. Like queer pop icons before them (Marc Almond of Soft Cell; Bronski Beat, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Boy George of Culture Club, and George Michael (just to name a few), Scissor Sisters helped to usher in a new era of queer pop that would pave the way for the Troye Sivans and Hayley Kiyokos of the 2010s. But this didn’t save the band from being pigeonholed by the press.
“Back then,” Jake Shears explained to NPR in 2010, regarding their rise, “it was like everything was about me and Babydaddy and Del being gay. That was the first thing any press wanted to talk about. It was frustrating, but I knew if we just kept moving ahead, it was going to make it easier for people that came after us.”
