Rank: 3.5/5
Australian singer-songwriter Sia’s seventh studio album, “This Is Acting,” solidifies her newfound role as a pop powerhouse, but it ultimately feels like her least personal project yet.
After releasing a string of moderately successful solo albums, Sia was finally met with widespread recognition after her 2014 single “Chandelier” became an international sensation. Once Sia stepped into the spotlight, “This Is Acting” became one of the most anticipated albums of 2016.
The album, for the most part, is a collection of songs written by Sia originally intended for other major pop artists that were ultimately rejected. The resulting album is a surprisingly cohesive experience, but some of the quirkier aspects of Sia’s songwriting in the past are lost in favor of a more mainstream pop format.
Always impressive, however, are Sia’s impeccable vocal performances that breathe life into every track on this project. Some of the most powerful and moving performances on the record appear on tracks like “Alive” and “Space Between.”
The first track on the album, “Bird Set Free,” is one of the record’s highlights. While it is one of the most formulaic pop songs on the project, this track is vitalized by Sia’s outstanding songwriting.
There’s something haunting when Sia exclaims “I don’t want to die. No, I don’t want to die” in this song’s hook. This is quickly offset by a very inspiring chorus, in which she proclaims that she doesn’t care if she sings off-key because she’s able to find so much purpose and fulfillment in her music.
The anthemic single “Alive” stands out as one of the strongest vocal deliveries on the album, but like “Cheap Thrills” and “Sweet Design,” it’s too formulaic to feel authentic. I’ve come to expect more originality in Sia’s lyricism after quirky and creative projects like 2008’s “Some People Have REAL Problems.”
Kanye West stepped in to produce the single “Reaper,” one of the album’s strongest moments. Sia’s uplifting lyrics and powerful vocals are undeniable on this track and it sports one of the project’s most infectious melodies.
A handful of tracks are unfortunately unimpressive, however. For instance, “Move Your Body” and “Unstoppable” fall flat when compared to some of the album’s highlights.
These highlights include “One Million Bullets,” “Footprints” and the final track, “Space Between,” which boasts the album’s most powerful vocal performance. These tracks stand out as Sia’s most genuine moments on a record that is an otherwise cookie-cutter pop project.
Sia, who is 40-years-old, has been making music for long enough to know what makes her stand out as a songwriter. Her rise to fame in the past two years has been characterized by the fact that she doesn’t look or act like other pop stars do.
This is why it’s disappointing that Sia seems to be headed in the opposite direction of that image with “This Is Acting.” While Sia is a vocal powerhouse throughout the entire album, some of the songs make it hard to tell what set her apart from other pop stars just a few years ago.