Sia – Some people have real problems (2008)

Last month Sia released her second disc in the U.S. It is her third or forth in the U.K. and Australia. Most of her fans, of course, came to know her through her vocals in the band Zero 7, which she shared the duties with Jose Gonzales, and others. Her first album,Color the Small one, was highlighted by the song ‘Breathe me’, which was used extensively by the HBO show “Six feet under.”

Here in, Some people have real problems, Sia continues with her slowcore, white girl soul sound, but now a tweeny pop sound comes in, and somehow it works. It is much better than Color the small one with the exception of the songs Sunday and Breathe me, wasn’t too much to write home about. This new one as a whole is better as a complete package, with a few strong tracks, but none as strong as the Zero 7-esque one’s that are mentioned above.

Still, there a few good tracks. My favorite is a wordy tune called Academia, which has a girlie “I am the Walrus” feel to it. Buttons is an unlisted and the last track has pop feel, and is the song that she opens up with in her live show. Electric Bird, Death by Chocolate, and You will be loved are all highlights of the disc.

It has a good flow: dark, slow, melodic. It is a chill album for those chill moments. Still it never is up to the quality of Zero-7, and is in no way a great album. I feel that I will forget about it soon as new and better stuff comes out. I like Sia, and this work is an improvement for her solo stuff, and it seems like record of transition.

I had the chance to see her in concert where she preformed most of the songs on the C/D. It did sound good live.

So, this is a good album but not a great album. Right now it is on my rotation of what I am listening too, but I am not that excited about it. For me it is completing with great outings by Radiohead and Jose Gonzales (who I am sure I will review soon), and that isn’t a fair, because those two works are probably in the best of the decade category.

Sia does deliver a heartfelt and definitely worthy work. The songs do grow on you. Still it never researches greatness. Maybe she will in her next.

Sia in Concert live at the Hiro Ballroom, New York City -11/5/07

At a little past 10pm on the night of November 5th, 2007, Australian singer Sia, (Her full name is Sia Furler. Sia pronounced like “C-ya”) who is best known for her work with Zero 7, took the stage in New York City. If you have never heard Sia, I would say she can be best categorized as white soul music, although she can raise her voice and tempo to sound like a pop singer, but I will get into that later.

Sia and band took their entrance in neon stripped out-fits, which made them look like a child’s drawings of stick figures with glow-in-the-dark Magic Markers. After that first song, which was “Buttons” off her new album, Sia and the band took off their special outfits, and then just looked bad. For some reason, Sia looked more attractive when I saw her with Zero 7 in 2004.

With Zero 7, she was just one of three singers who would come on stage only when it was time for a song that she sang, and she would leave when it was someone else’s tune. This time Sia has to the show to herself where she is the star.

I was never clear if she was high, drunk or just was naturally so crazy funny. She bounced around talk to the audience throughout the show. Sometimes she would speak to specific people in the audience. She was like your batty British aunt. At one point, because someone requested a song that they had not been rehearsed, Sia gave that girl a stuffed animal in a manner reminiscent of giving a child a consolation prize.

After “Buttons,” she played a couple of boring songs from “Colour the Small One,” then went into “Sunday,” “Breathe me,” and “Destiny,” a Zero 7 number. The rest of the show was music from her upcoming album, which she encouraged people to download. She told the audience to Google “some people have REAL problems” and that when it comes out to buy it if they like it or keep coming to gigs because either way, it didn’t really effect her. Maybe she was taking the Radiohead approach.

Her new stuff was much more up tempo than her previous. I was amazed on how she could lower her voice in an impressive white soul music woman and raise it to a pop star like nasally high pitched sound. Generally, the stuff off her new album was somewhere in the middle. I liked it.

She played for just over an hour. When the show really got going it was strangely engaging. She ended with another Zero 7 song, “Distractions.” She did really have something, during a few of the songs, I really felt like I was watching something special. Overall, it took a bit for her to get into the show, she suffered from technical issues and a lack of concentration, but when she got into it was really good.