With group members having names like Babydaddy, Paddy Boom and Ana Matronic, and a fashion sense like the Queer Eye guys have gone out of style like, soooo six months ago, (group member Jake Shears seriously pulls off a feather boa better than most women) it's easy to tell even before listening to the Scissor Sisters debut album that they, uhhhhh . . . live a very alternative lifestyle. Not that there's anything wrong with that! (God, thy name be Seinfeld).

It would be very easy to write these gender benders off as a shrewd attempt to capitalize on the gay community, (cough, Fischerspooner, cough) but luckily that won't happen because the music is so damn good. The obvious influence here is Elton John. With no less than three songs here sounding just like him, it's easy to see why the Sisters have opened for him overseas. The best of that batch of songs though is definitely the single "Take Your Mama." Even though it's walking on thin ice sounding a bit too close to John's "Honky Cat," it prevails as a winner with its hilarious content of a man taking his mother out to the gay clubs to show her that he won't be getting married to that girl anytime soon. "Music Is The Victim" is another of the very best songs here. With no shame lines like "I left my bag in Pasadena where all them girls was doin' Tina, them bitches sure was crunked up on it. I said I'd rather smoke some chronic." It's impossible not to laugh, or at the very least crack an indecent smile.

The only problem with the Scissor Sisters debut is that it sometimes drowns in its own campy waters. "It Can't Come Quickly Enough" just feels like a fumbled rehashing of Pet Shop Boys' "Love Comes Quickly," and album closer "Return to Oz" would be right at home next to Styx's awful pair of "Babe" and "Lady." The one I just can't make heads or tails out of though is their cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." I don't understand why it's become such a huge hit in Europe with its Bee Gees like falsetto delivery over a disco beat. I'm sorry but this version just plain sucks. If Jay Kay from Jamiroquai would have covered this a year ago, nobody I would have given two shits, and y'all know it!

Even with being bogged down at times though, the Scissor Sisters first album wins out overall by just being a real fun time. And for the heterosexual community, this may just be the biggest guilty pleasure since The Birdcage.