Scissor Sisters

Fri., Aug. 27, 8:30 p.m., $30-$32, with Sammy Jo, Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh St., 800-745-3000, electricfactory.info.

by K. Ross Hoffman

pop/dance

From the ass-tastic 1980 Robert Mapplethorpe cover shot to the entendre-riddled lyric sheet and the gleaming, greased-up disco grooves contained within, Night Work (Downtown) finds Jake Shears and co. returning from a too-long absence in revitalized, deliriously hedonistic form. This is their gayest, sexiest, simultaneously campiest and most earnest outing to date. It's got space for wiry new wave rock ("Running Out") and strutting pop-metal ("Harder You Get") — though not the eyebrow-raising twang of their recent Kylie Minogue cover — but they've streamlined their sound for the dancefloor throughout, with an able assist from retro-electro savant Stuart Price (Killers, Madonna, Les Rythmes Digitales) on instant classics like "Whole New Way" — a bouncy, delightfully chipper paean to butt sex — and the searingly anthemic "Skin Tight," which is at once a thinly coded meditation on condom use and a totally gorgeous love song. Don't worry too much about whether they're smirking or sincere, just be stoked that they're back. These scissors swing both ways.