Album: Sia

Some People Have Real Problems (Monkey Puzzle)

'Some People Have Real Problems' is the fourth solo album from Sia Furler, the Aussie singer best known to British audiences for her work with down-tempo dullards Zero 7, and it's easily her best. Sadly, this isn't because she's had an epiphany, a eureka moment, a breakthrough. It's because she's had a listen to the biggest selling, or at least biggest-haired, British female artist of the moment, and decided "anything Amy can do, I can do slightly worse". On the very first track, the country-tinged "Little Black Sandals", Furler sings the line "He was a line between pleasure and pain" with a serious degree of Winehousing (we'll start using that as a verb, shall we?); and a line on the second track, the unpromisingly named "Lentil", the Winehousing is so extreme that I couldn't possibly transcribe it for you without a lyrics booklet. Furler has even roped in Amy's producer, Jimmy Hogarth, to get the requisite swelling strings and classic chord changes. The results are mildly appealing in four-minute doses, but grating over a full-length album. Nevertheless, Some People... is gonna sell like crazy until the beehived one releases another record, when it will be promptly forgotten.

Download this: At this point, you arent sick of her yet: Day Too Soon