sia - colour the small one
sia came to the publics attention following her appearance on zero7 tracks several years ago. naturally, she grabbed her chance and released her first solo album which was a strongly r-n-b machine driven album, one that didn't really hit me when i dug it out recently in order to see where she had come from in order to create this rather special album.
for fans of lp number 1 you should be warned, this second solo album is a different beast altogether. sia has wisely ditched the dance groove, and become a singer songwriter of the traditional sense. the music is far more natural, the ambience is warm, melodic and positively gorgeous. several tracks on this album are quite simply goosebump inducers ('breathe me', 'rewrite'). the voice has matured and is not as strained as on her previous releases making repeated listening a real pleasure. elements of kate bush, tori amos and nelly furtado are apparent in places, but the songs are definitely the property of sia, though 'the bully' has been given a helping hand from beck. sia has obviously made some good friends along the way.
i should point out that this is not a dido for 2004, as has been indicated elsewhere, for listen to the album more closely and under the beautifully arranged instrumentation are subtle sonic extras that add layers of aural interest, there are twitchy beats, subtly electronica enhanced production, along with guest appearances from clarinets, accordian and on several tracks - a full orchestration provided by will malone. all of which adds together making the album feel like a complete whole.
even the cover art matches the style of the album, hand drawn pencil sketches of sia, logo entwined with birds, flowers and berrys. is one being lead to assume that sia has become a child of mother nature and dumped the urban-ness of old.
a perfect sunday morning album.