Mumble and Hum: Sia's Some People Have Real Problems
Written: Jan 30 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Do you like Dido? And Norah Jones? You have to hear Sia.
Cons: The flawlessness of it all can be a little grating.
The Bottom Line: In which the author is, once again, thankful that he no longer works for Shopko.
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| plorentz's Full Review: Some People Have Real Problems [1/8] * by Sia |
She has a voice like an exotic woodwind instrument, indigenous to some ancient Mediterranean culture, intonations that fall between throaty wails and nasally purrs, phrasings full of snakecharmer trills and runs that even the sturdiest of her (generally very sturdy) melodies have to fight to contain, enunciations that, alternating between intoxicated slur, ecstatic swoon, and lazy slop, slouch recklessly towards wordlessness. The Australian-native singer-songwriter Sia (Furler) has already distinguished herself as a figure of almost cultish mystery with her vocal contributions to records by Zero 7 (specialists in information age make-out music) and with her 2004 single “Breathe Me” as the soundtrack to the (literally) haunted coda of Six Feet Under’s final episode. As a solo artist, and away from soundtracks, however, Sia’s music, as pretty as it almost always is, is surprisingly… unsurprising. It’s hard to hold Sia’s weaknesses against her, because they are all essentially strengths – employed with such reliability and taste as to render them predictable and edgeless.
Among the baker’s dozen of originals (including the hidden bonus track “Buttons” included on her recently released second full-length studio album Some People Have Real Problems, you’d be hard-pressed to find a song that doesn’t sound like it might just be the next adult-alternative-radio phenomenon to equal the likes of Dido’s “Thank You” or Norah Jones’s “Don’t Know Why”. Married to lyrics that have a candid, just-copied-out-of-her-diary vibe, the melodies of mid-tempo (invariably midtempo) ballads like “You Have Been Loved” and “Soon, We’ll Be Found” soar with anthemic abandon, stopping just short of outright bombast. Meanwhile, “Academia”, which features a guest appearance by Beck, finds Sia reducing a relationship to a series of mathematical equations and theorems - and if I am a number, I'm infinity plus one and if you are five words then you're afraid to be the one - over a melody that is all flirt and tickle. The album’s sole cover, a centerpiece reading of the Kinks’ (by way of the Pretenders) “I Go To Sleep” (previewed in a live recording on last year’s Lady Croissant album) has a reverent, sultry languor to it, equally well-suited to bank lobbies and boho juice bars. And it’s hard not to be seduced by the song’s arrangements, which evoke downtown basement jazz clubs and top floor cocktail bars simultaneously – all brushed snares, creaky floorboard cellos, lush reeds and muted brass sighs. It may just be the sonic equivalent of an aromatherapy candle.
But then, it’s just as easy to find yourself happily seduced (sedated?) by a song like the lead single “Day Too Soon” as it is to find yourself thoroughly annoyed by it. Last Sunday afternoon, I remember hearing the song piped in over the East Madison Shopko’s muzak system while I was waiting in a check-out line, and feeling positively murderous toward it. By chance, I had the CD playing in my car, and I found myself involuntarily falling back in love with the song, wailing along with Sia reassuring melodies, wishing I had the first clue what she was actually saying, but also feeling a little grateful that the vagueness of her vocalizations allowed me to just sort of mumble and hum my way through it. And so goes Some People Have Real Problems, the most distinctive quality of which is the elaborate (but nevertheless sort of ugly and over-executed) packaging, a heavy cardstock digipack which comes in a heavy cardstock slipcase, and eschews a traditional booklet in favor of a desultory collection of graphics-covered, mostly textless cards (one card does contain the album’s credits, at least). It’s enormously pretty, technically virtually faultless, but ultimately pretty inconsequential.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"Some People Have Real Problems" by Sia
Monkey Puzzle / hearmusic Records
Released 1/8/2008
Produced by Jimmy Hogarth
58 min.
SONGS: Little Black Sandals - Lentil - Day Too Soon - You Have Been Loved - The Girl You Lost to Cocaine - Academia - I Go To Sleep - Playground - Death by Chocolate - Soon We'll Be Found - Electric Bird - Beautiful Calm Driving - Lullaby - Buttons
Recommended:
Yes
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plorentz
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Member: Paul Lorentz
Location: The Land of Limburger and Leinenkugel's
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Somebody turn the lights on...
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