The concept of artists needing a “profession reboot” usually has as a lot to do with the petulant impatience of content-saturated followers than the precise state of affairs of the artist in query. However within the case of Sia, the urgency of a course correction is difficult to disclaim. Sia broke out from the ranks of top-level songwriters-for-hire in 2014 with the self-emptying party-kamikaze ginormity of “Chandelier.” Her 2017 album That is Performing was an idea document of kinds that repurposed songs she’d initially written with singers like Adele and Rihanna in thoughts, of which the RiRi reject “Low cost Thrills” ended up going Quantity One. However she struggled to seek out her subsequent act. There was a Christmas album in 2018, and a genre-melting side-band with Diplo and the British singer Labrinth referred to as LSD. Her subsequent venture was the 2021 film musical Music, which was roundly excoriated for casting Maddie Ziegler (the neurotypical actor and dancer from the memorable “Chandelier” video) to play a teen with autism.
That film’s soundtrack album, nonetheless, confirmed that Sia’s songcraft hadn’t fallen beneath a baseline high quality stage, even when it rendered music as forgettable because the movie was regrettable. Her first album in three years, Cheap Lady, can also be stable, a return to the aesthetic imply that works greater than it doesn’t. Not one of the singles launched from it up to now have been hits, however they’re all resolutely competent examples of Sia’s knack for sweeping, feelings-heavy glitz. “Gimme Love” is a titanically large plea with a grand, martial beat; Chaka Khan seems on the blast of R&B triumphalism referred to as ”Immortal Queen”; Kylie Minogue brings her traditional down-to-earth-diva heat to the lithe dance-pop of “Dance Alone”; and “Fame Received’t Love You,” a big-swinging synth-pop tune about profession jitters, pairs Sia with Paris Hilton to give you probably the most memorably catchy track on the album.
Sia’s lyrical security zone stays motivational anthems like “Little Wing” and “Champion,” the latter of which options verses from Tierra Whack and lesser-known rappers Jimmy Jolliff and Kaliii. These sentiments include a spritz of quasi-autobiographical pathos right here: “It’s a tough life/However I’m nonetheless right here/In spite of everything these years/I’m stronger than I believed I used to be,” she informs us in the course of the glassy, gossamer opening of “Go On.”
That includes a number of assists from Greg Kurstin and Jesse Shaktin, the longtime collaborators who helped her make “Chandelier,” Cheap Lady usually feels prefer it may’ve been a satisfactory follow-up to This Is Performing in 2018 or so. Again then, Sia’s all-in strategy to songwriting helped add an depth to the Prime 40. However issues had been already beginning to change even at her peak, and on this decade, onetime friends like Taylor, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey have steadily shifted the tone of pop in direction of element, artsy intimacy, and a way of non-public shadow-play.
Probably the most hanging track on the album, the spartan piano ballad “I Forgive You,” is nearer to that mildew, a form of scorched-earth model of a Sia-penned mega-smash like Rihanna’s “Diamonds.” It’s additionally a bracing showcase for her capacity to leap from her dusky midrange to an Olympian higher register, whereas sounding without delay downcast, resilient, and heroically reborn. It’s a reminder that even when the zeitgeist has shifted, and the songs gained’t seemingly be vaulting up the streaming charts, you’ll be able to nonetheless stand robust as titanium.
