Chandelier

Not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed when I heard the new Sia song for the first time. I’ve been a fan of hers since Zero 7 and a lot of her early albums are moody, well-written and quietly blow you away. She’s got a voice, a really powerful voice, a voice you wouldn’t think is possible from a skinny, white girl from Australia. Plus, she’s weird in a really awesome way. She has a great imagination when it comes to videos, writing, being. But her last album was way too poppy for me. It didn’t have the depth her other albums did, it didn’t move me like the others, so I kinda chocked it up to what happens to most artists when they get more famous – Ingrid Michaelson, Jewel – they become less songwriter and more synthesizer. Maybe they change artistic directions
? Which is their prerogative. I can’t argue with that.
This Sia song is growing on me though. The video changed my mind. It may not be something that grabs you immediately, but I think hearing the song with the video is pretty powerful. The little girl is some innocent version of Sia that’s trapped in an adult world she can’t exactly control. Maddie Ziegler, 11, is on some sort of reality show about dancing which is kind of sad, but I’ve never seen the show, so am holding my judgment. Either way, she’s pretty damn talented. They performed this on the Ellen show yesterday. Maddie dancing, Sia, who rarely does TV appearances because she has horrible anxiety, panic attacks and Graves’ disease, sang live with her back to the audience/TV camera. I sort of loved that, too. It forced you to focus on Maddie dancing and Sia’s voice, the song, the visuals. It made it more about the art than persona. Here’s a link to that if you want to check it out. Sia has always done her own thing, which I really admire. In any case, I’m glad she’s back.