Her record deal stipulates minimal promotion. Ultimately you want the same things as the benighted cannon-fodder of The X Factor. Rihanna's Diamonds is one of hers; so is Beyoncé's Pretty Hurts, David Guetta's Titanium and rapper Flo Rida's Wild Ones. The emotion Sia can convey in her vocals is unmatched by most if not all other modern pop singers, and even though it frequently breaks and squeaks, she never loses pitch or delivers a vocal that’s less than stunning. Fire Meet Gasoline, for example, is Beyoncé's Halo on a never-ending bender. After producing so many hits over the years, perhaps one's fear would be Sia's transformation into an mainstream artist. The drink and drugs did her in too; she was then misdiagnosed as bipolar, leading to even more chemical distress and a suicidal episode. This went well. In the age of celebrity, creativity is often just a means to an end. Music Reviews: 1000 Forms of Fear by Sia released in 2014 via Monkey Puzzle, RCA. It is a consistent, brilliant, deep pop record, by one of pop's best artists. Her own material spirals into destructive depths, and her sixth album is a release of pure Lena Dunham-generation angst ("We've still not kissed yet and I've already cried", "Party girls don't get hurt … when will I learn?"). Hostage is winningly odd and ramshackle – almost ska-pop, like Gwen Stefani in No Doubt. In July 2015, Sia was in sixth position in the Woman's Hour Power List of top 10 influencers, alongside Angelina Jolie. Her talent and torment is enrapturing, but while Sia deserves stardom, 1,000 Forms of Fear is so sonically flawless and contemporary-sounding that its impact may fade with time. Genre: Electropop. In an interview with the New York Times in 2014, 38-year-old Australian Sia Furler discussed how a fear of fame led her to switch career from performing to songwriting. She sits at the same Hamptons dinner table with a gang of top international pop creatives – and Beyoncé and Jay Z – a scene captured in one of the promotional documentary snippets around Beyoncé's last album. By Erik Thompson / 11 July 2014, 13:30 BST. All rights reserved. Kitty Empire reviews Jack White at Hammersmith Apollo. Eventually, Furler began writing songs for other people. Furler's lyrics do tend more towards generalities than specifics, but there are penetrating looks here at love's mind games (Fair Game), and being saved (Cellophane). But she also used to go out with JD Samson, of feminist electronic agitators Le Tigre. Her talent and torment is enrapturing, but while Sia deserves stardom, 1,000 Forms of Fear is so sonically flawless and contemporary-sounding that its impact may fade with time. Sia - 1000 Forms of Fear. n the age of celebrity, creativity is often just a means to an end. But the converse is also true. Despite her personal hardship, Sia is able to produce exceptional power balladry and intelligent lyricism. "1000 Forms of fear" rings true to its dramatic title. "While I fall apart, you'll hide all my pills again," she gargles. That’s true of all of 1000 Forms of Fear. Ridiculously so – there is a small cabal of a few dozen people (Swedish men, mainly) who write the majority of international pop hits and she is in that cabal, like Carole King on elephant steroids. All of contemporary pop is here. Soon she was knocking out hit after hit for Beyoncé, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Britney Spears. There are Katy Perry-type songs (Burn the Pages, Eye of the Needle). Ultimately you want the same things as the benighted cannon-fodder of, JD Samson, of feminist electronic agitators Le Tigre, Rihanna sometimes copies Furler's guide vocals. Maybe it was the material, maybe it was that Furler was an introvert who couldn't cope with the look-at-me grind. Chandelier is the diary of an alcoholic – the giddy highs, and the desperate lows – set to triumphal, rococo pop production techniques. Thu 3 Jul 2014 22.15 BST What's distinctive here, though, is the marshalling of a huge arsenal of chart-pop dynamism behind the distinctly grown-up songs of a woman who doesn't want to be famous. In her new role, she developed a sure-fire formula for writing songs based on taking an evocative word (“umbrella,” say, or “firework”) and spinning it into a three-minute metaphor, with some added musical whoosh, designed to take the singer on a journey from “victim to victor”. A clever range of textures (from raw cello through stuttering piano to popcorn-light synths) keep things interesting and there’s a bravery in the way she spins inspirational lyrics from her long battles with addiction and bipolar disorder. If Furler has a downside as a singer, it's that she is too good a vocal chameleon, a composite of her clients, even if Rihanna sometimes copies Furler's guide vocals exactly. 1000 Forms of Fear; Sia 8; Release date: 07 July 2014 ; Country: United States Get it on: iTunes Amazon; After four years of writing towering hits for some of the biggest stars in modern music, Sia is cautiously poised to claim some of the pop spotlight back for herself, but only on her own idiosyncratic terms. There are songs that sound like Rihanna (a return client). Now 38, Furler originally came to some renown as the recidivist guest singer for 00s electronica outfit Zero 7. Pop is often dismissed as insubstantial and emotionally vacuous and this stuff is not. ‘Like Carole King on elephant steroids‘… yet Sia Furler's record deal stipulates minimal promotion. Furler recently featured on the cover of music industry bible Billboard with a bag over her head; her Anti-Fame Manifesto ran in the same issue. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Sia Furler has had an unconventional trajectory; the 38-year-old star, who has put behind her drug addiction and a suicide attempt, and hates fame so much she poses with a paper bag over her head, has become the go-to songwriter for gargantuan gloss pop, penning hits for Rihanna, Britney and David Guetta. First published on Thu 3 Jul 2014 22.15 BST. But rather than cleaving to pop's primary palette, where sexiness and triumphalism play well, these are songs mostly about pain. Pop songwriting powerhouse Sia keeps her darker and more complex songs for herself but retains the endorphin-releasing electropop climaxes. The goal is recognition, recompense and then, it's hoped, mansions, Pennines of cocaine and adulation, especially the kind with benefits. The problem with writing songs for a living is that if you are wildly successful you then have to be famous. The goal is recognition, recompense and then, it's hoped, mansions, Pennines of cocaine and adulation, especially the kind with benefits. In the video for her recent single, Chandelier, a young reality TV star-cum-dancer sports Furler's signature blond bob; Furler doesn't figure. Sia, 1000 Forms of Fear, review: 'clever' Pop songwriting powerhouse Sia keeps her darker and more complex songs for herself but retains the endorphin-releasing electropop climaxes 4. Australian pop phenomenon Sia Furler has ridden the fame cusp in an awkward position – one buttock on, one buttock off – for the best part of a decade. You write, compose or direct. But she’s really a smart woman who just found the perfect medium for her truth. 1000 Forms of Fear is Furler's sixth solo album and, if you're coming to her fresh, it is probably her best, the result of years of refining her art (yes, writing pop smashes is an art) and of feeling wretched and unloved despite all her success. So effective is her music that Sia might seem to press emotional buttons with a kind of calculated ease. On Straight for the Knife (rat-a-tat beat, wandering vocal melody), Furler's R&B mutter tips over into a jazz slur redolent of Amy Winehouse. You write, compose or direct. Her own solo career didn't quite take off, despite a single, Breathe Me, that soundtracked the finale of the HBO series Six Feet Under. 1000 Forms of Fear review – Sia Furler, ace songwriter, reluctant star (Sony) ‘Like Carole King on elephant steroids‘… yet Sia Furler's record deal stipulates minimal promotion. Although the songs she’s chosen for her sixth solo album are darker and more complex than many of those she sells to others, the formula is still recognisable.The tracks have titles like Chandelier and Cellophane and build towards big, endorphin-releasing electropop climaxes. Sung in that distinctive voice – a mixture of tormented whine and croak that channels the wild abandon of Cyndi Lauper – she mimics generic pop but warps it cleverly. Topics Sia Furler Sia's new songs 'build towards big, endorphin-releasing electropop climaxes', Kate Humble on how she spends her Saturday enjoying poached egg on toast and delivering piglets, The Cycling Podcast, Giro d'Italia 2020 — stage 19: On the buses, 'Views to inspire a life's work': Inside Burgh Island's luxury Beach House, The 12 best coats to keep you cosy and chic this winter. Available for everyone, funded by readers.