Some People Have Real Problems

I'm liking this album for several reasons. If you've never heard of Sia - well, I won't attempt to compare her to anyone else - but I'll just say she's got an amazing amount of white-girl soul, she's sassy, and she's an Aussie (extra points)! I'm a big fan of Zero 7, who have featured her vocals on several of their tracks (remember Destiny? I think it got a bit of airplay.) Sometimes the up and down vocal runs (a la Christina Aguilera and most other female pop vocalists and Idol contestants) can be a bit too much, but damn, when Sia lets go and belts those strong, clear notes it is just a powerful, beautiful thing that gives me chills. I'd recommend checking out the tracks "You Have Been Loved" (gets me verklempt), "Day Too Soon", "Buttons" (fun, upbeat single I've included in my "workout mix" for if I ever um, actually get my ass around to working out - freaky video though), and "Distractions" (on the Zero 7 album Simple Things) or you know, tell me to email you some tunes or whatevah.
I also can't help but have a fondness for the clever album title and cover art. I love her expression of being in la la land while drawing on her face with markers. Alright, maybe I am partial since I once did this myself - although it was probably at age 5. I vaguely remember getting up in the morning before everyone else and having this brilliant idea of drawing "makeup" on myself, and being quite proud of my work. I think I scared the crap out of my mom when she saw my garish, clown-like makeup job that almost completely covered my face (who doesn't want to wake up to that?) and I remember being marched to the bathroom and instructed to keep scrubbing until it came off. Not sure if the markers were of the "washable" variety - though I'm sure Crayola didn't intend for even those to be used for decorating one's face. The mental image I have is of these big scary black eyebrows I drew that would not wash off, just faded to a sickly green that stuck around long enough to make me slightly worried that I'd always have a surprised/angry/diseased look on my face. Oh, and I'm sure there were freckles too, as I had been known to draw on a couple of my less fortunate dolls. Lurvely!