ABBEY STELL
Staff Writer
You will be surprised to know that artist Sia’s new album “Some People Have Real Problems” is classified as pop. It hardly sounds like anything ever to come out of pop sensations such as Gwen Stefani or Kelly Clarkson, and Sia’s sound surpasses them by far.
This third studio album of the Australian-born singer was released at the beginning of this month by Monkey Puzzle Records, Ltd.
Sia Furler launched her professional music career after she moved to the U.K, where she picked up a gig doing back up vocals for English sensation Jamiroquai. She just recently announced her North American tour, for which concert tickets are available.
Up until now, Sia has dabbled in R&B and jazz, and even acoustic. Her previous albums include “Healing is Difficult and Colour the Small One.”
The new album features songs like “Little Black Sandals, Day Too Soon,” and even a cover of the Kinks’ “I Go to Sleep.” Also featured on a couple of tracks is the backup vocal talent of Beck Hansen. The album’s overall ambience falls nicely on the ears and, rather than pop, should be described as smooth and easy listening lounge music – possibly even a little jazzy.
Unlike most albums, which may have three or four great hits, all 14 tracks on “Some People Have Real Problems” are enjoyable to the last note.
At first, each song seems to blur into the next. Yet after listening to the album two or three times you will discover every track to have a unique and distinct style. Also included is a bonus music video of the track Day Too Soon.
If you enjoy the vocal styles of Nelly Furtado or Dido, the grace of Norah Jones, and the talent of a singer such as Jewel, you will be pleased with Sia’s smoky and calm, yet resonating and powerful pipes.
Other instruments used are the piano, electric guitar, xylophone, accordion, trumpet, clarinet, flute and strings.
Many of Sia’s lyrics seem on the surface level at first but, upon deeper examination, prove to be much more profound. To speak frankly, they are depressing; however, Furler does not fail to connect them with a message of hope. For example, in “Death by Chocolate” she writes, “Tears on your pillow will dry and you will learn just how to love again,” moving to, “You might explode, but you’ll reach the end of the road. And you, little tree, I’m certain you will grow.”
One of the album’s prominent themes concerning the song lyrics, which were almost all co-written by Furler, has to do with dysfunctional relationships.
This can be seen in the track “Little Black Sandals” when she sings, “I’m being dragged down, by the hand of a golden giant man, he’s crushing my knuckles, splitting my skin, so I shout I wanna get away from you as fast as I can.”
Her songs also reflect a lot of emotional pain. Take for example, the song “Death by Chocolate,” which says, “Death by chocolate is a myth. This I know because I’ve lived. I’ve been around for broken hearts,” and also when she writes, “Death by crying doesn’t exist, thought the headaches feel a bit like it.” These lyrics cause the listener to wonder if this was emotional pain Sia may have experienced in her own life.
Two other tracks, “Academia” and “Playground,” have lyrics with difficult messages to decipher.
Although her voice remains solid throughout the album, the two songs that stand out the most and show her vocal range at best are “The Girl You Lost to Cocaine” and, “Death by Chocolate.”
The one disappointment on the album doesn’t pertain to the songs, but rather the album’s so called “album art,” or the designs on the booklet cover, Simply because it appears as though Sia got a kindergartner to do it for her.
01-17-2008
