Sia - Some People Have Real Problems (2008)

After a smattering of success surrounding her inclusion in the Six Feet Under series finale with the song "Breathe Me," and collaborations with electronic stars Massive Attack and Zero 7, Sia (Furler) returns with a pop record that's witty and touching, alternately funny and achingly melancholy. Shades of Fiona Apple cross with Joss Stone's blue-eyed soul. Sia shines on a terrifically sung take on the Kinks' (by way of the Pretenders cover) "I Go To Sleep" and her own deeply felt "Lentil." Many of these songs shimmer with a radio-friendly gloss, but the show belongs to this eccentric Australian, who bravely subverts the accessible production through winking and sometimes sinister lyrics. Beck guests on the metaphor-packed "Academia," book-ending lines like "you're a difficult equation with a knack for heart evasion" with a mournful chorus that strips away the lyrical cleverness to plumb the broken-hearted depths of a ruined relationship. Check your enhanced CD for a truly strange video for the hidden bonus track, "Buttons," in which Sia distorts her face using a wide variety of objects, including scotch tape, fishnet hose, and a condom, to name a few. If this playing with her own image is Sia's warning shot across the bow of a popular music industry obsessed with the visual, it'll make you think twice about what you're seeing, but can't distract from the intoxicating soundscape she delivers. -- Ben Heege