Personality and style are tricky concepts in pop music, and you'd have to say that Sia is aware of this as anyone, and on This Is Acting - a collection of songs that she originally wrote for other (mega) artists including Adele, Beyonce etc - that plays out especially interestingly.
Most of these songs are very good, and mostly they sound kind of like Sia and also kind of like plenty of other major pop singers of the moment - especially the most straight ahead ones, which also tend to be the best (i.e. "Bird Set Free", "Alive", "Unstoppable", "House On Fire" (maybe - my radar about straight ahead-ness proves somewhat scattered), "One Million Bullets" - although that's the one exception in that she didn't write it with another singer in mind), though there's also the slowed-down, quirky "Reaper" which is differently ace. Taken as a whole, it's a notch below 1000 Forms of Fear but its better moments would have fit seamlessly on that other, which is telling in itself.
Most of these songs are very good, and mostly they sound kind of like Sia and also kind of like plenty of other major pop singers of the moment - especially the most straight ahead ones, which also tend to be the best (i.e. "Bird Set Free", "Alive", "Unstoppable", "House On Fire" (maybe - my radar about straight ahead-ness proves somewhat scattered), "One Million Bullets" - although that's the one exception in that she didn't write it with another singer in mind), though there's also the slowed-down, quirky "Reaper" which is differently ace. Taken as a whole, it's a notch below 1000 Forms of Fear but its better moments would have fit seamlessly on that other, which is telling in itself.
