I don't get Sia. I admire her voice greatly, but she lacks any special qualities that make a music star. I also don't get this facade of not revealing her face. It's not edgy or original and actually has to be one of the crappiest gimmicks in musical history. Her albums are repetitively swooned over by critics and so I thought I'd give her another try, obviously being sensible and not participating in any internet defamation, writing a good honest review that won't to pander to a demographic.
The standout selling point for 'This is Acting' is that the material was written for other artists by Sia herself. Sounds intriguing doesn't it? Well no actually, because who wants to pay full price for an album that's essentially sloppy seconds rejected by other artists. Sia would have had to tailor these songs to other artists, so why the fuck would she then rehash them under her own banner only to collate the results into a cut and stick job for wholesale? If other artists have rejected the material then that takes balls to then try and rework them with your own neck on the line, because I would have thought that alarm bells would be ringing in Sia's head when she realises she's recording material that names such as Rihanna and Katy Perry have rejected. I mean have you seen the low quality material that Rihanna and Katy Perry actually choose to release? I'm not sure I would want to be performing the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel.
The big standout single is 'Alive', which is just awful, and feeling alive after a listen would probably be mankind's greatest achievement. It wasn't a million miles away from making my 'worst songs of 2015' list, as it's not exciting, it's not original, the pacing is terrible, and as for the crescendo, well why anyone thought repeatedly screaming I'm still breathing whilst noticeably gasping for air would sound good on a pop song is a mystery to me. The whole thing was just so unpleasant to listen to that it made by ears virtually bleed. If that's an iconic feature then this album should be heading to the bin instead of retail stores. Where emotions come into the equation is a mystery to me, as apart from wanting to put Sia out of her misery there wasn't any positive thoughts to be found here. It was actually a lot like listening to a live band at a crappy pub, not one of the most highly renowned artists of the decade. 'Alive' was such a terrible way to kick things off that the rest of the album becomes a bit like expecting a horse to win the Grand National after being shot in the head as a result of falling at the first hurdle. In short you can't build a house without foundations, and Sia's foundations were full of shit.
'Alive' isn't the worst song on the album though. Oh no, the worst song by far was 'Sweet Design', which isn't sweet and wasn't well designed. 'Sweet Design' samples the equally terrible 'Thong Song'. The thought of 'why?' ended up repeating itself in my head constantly, and at no point did it ever occur to me that something as poorly composed as this should ever be released to people with functioning ears. No album given five stars by anyone should ever contain anything as unpleasant as this. If this really does signify emotional completeness of the album then this is the part containing all the scorn and hate that dominate my emotional sphere; but just by giving 'Sweet Design' a listen you can understand why.
This album isn't remotely captivating or enticing. Instead 'This is Acting' is just uninspired and pretentious drivel that has a surprisingly samey formula that's overall really bland. I get that Sia has a great voice, and I love when she shows it off without becoming pretentious, but aside from the odd change in pace it's the same bread and butter formula as previous albums without adding anything interesting. Why the hell would anyone buy this? It's like rejecting a brand new lawnmower for an old used one that's the same price. I've seen reviews were the songs that in my opinion are pointless time-wasters, which by the way never create any kind of ulterior picture, are actually defended with the argument that they provided what is essentially comic relief; something I'm sure everyone buys a musical album for. If this is an emotionally charged album then what the fuck is this light hearted shit doing in there? Furthermore I've seen more reviews that claim this album is some sort of self help journey that gains confidence with each song. Sounds marvelous in theory, however any claim that any vulnerability has dissipated throughout the course of the album is quickly shot down by the final song 'Space Between' in which we find the line 'Oh, we don't bend, we're breaking'. Some fucking transformation here. You can't insert any argument you want as to how you think the album progresses, but it's instantly clear to me that there just simply isn't any, and this album was thrown together without a thought.
There are some plus point around; The lyrics are thankfully not generic drivel, and the production is absolutely stellar in places, but you would have to be a clinical moron to give this anywhere near a five star mark. I'm sure Sia herself wouldn't even class the results as one of the best albums recorded in recent years; and even she wouldn't resort to a pointless philosophical analysis in order to defend a work that never felt special. There's no journey here; just an age old formula that has stayed with Sia throughout her whole career. None of the content is remarkable in any way, and this is just another album from just another average performer. If this is how music should be done I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
Final Score: 3/10
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