Friday Lock-in: Sia - 1000 Forms of Fear

Written By the interns on 07/04/2014

sia 1000 forms of fear the interns

Australian artist, Sia has gone from being our homegrown hero to an International songwriter to an enigmatic superstar. Her latest album, 1000 Forms of Fear follows a brilliant marketing campaign which has centred around Sia being played by everybody from 11 year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler to a clumsy Lena Dunham. This is Sia’s first album since writing hits for Rihanna, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera and many more.

We locked ourselves in, donned our wigs and unfortunately refrained from swinging from the chandelier. Read below our track-by-track discussion of Sia’s 1000 Forms of Fear.

Chandelier

Sam: It’s a good start the the album. I love it, it’s such a good song

Bianca: Oh yeah I can’t even explain. It’s too much

Sam: Euphoric, big pop song. If you look at it in comparison to something like Roar by Katy Perry, it’s just got so much more guts

Hannah: Unapologetic ballad

Bianca: Stunning

Hannah: Dynamic

lena

 

Big Girls Cry

Bianca: It’s the answer to Fergie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry

Hannah: It’s perfect for 3am karaoke when you’re already slurring

Sam: I don’t understand what she’s saying to be honest

Hannah: Apart from “Big girls cry when their hearts are breaking”

Sam: Mmmm how do we go from a song like swinging from the chandelier drunk to suddenly crying. Doesn’t resonate with me

Bianca: Well, you’re not a girl

Hannah: I like it, it's kind of here nor there for me

Sam: Nup, she could palm it off to Christina Aguilera or something

 

Burn The Pages

Hannah: It’s like a pop ballad with a lot of Regina Spektor influences and credibility

Sam: Yeah, I love how she goes full on with the words in the verse and then she pulls it back and stretches them out in the chorus. It gives it so much more punch

Bianca: And the drums are always a welcome accompaniment. That marching band drum

Sam: It’s got kind of like a hip-hoppy, trap, Ryan Hemsworth touch. It’s cool. It’s back to Chandelier good.

Hannah: You could definitely dance along to this if you saw it at a festival. Chandelier you would just scream your lungs out

 

Eye of the Needle

Bianca: I don’t think I would choose to listen to this album in its entirety. It would just be too much Sia.

Sam: It’s a bit too much of pop track after pop track after hit after hit. But that said, I really, really like this song because of the vocal run in the verse.

Bianca: Her voice shines

Sam: I can imagine singing along to this if it came on in the car

Bianca: You wouldn't know any of the words though

Sam: Yeah just make 'em up

Hannah: Sam’s in the car practising his vocals runs to Sia

Sam: Always up in da car working on my vocal runs

Sam: As far as a pop album goes she’s hitting it on the head so far

Bianca: Oh yeah. The fact I’m actually sitting through it says something

Hannah: It does that nice bridging between having mainstream appeal without being a sell-out

 

Hostage

Bianca: I just kept hearing Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time in that

Hannah: It sounds like a girl band of 10 Things I Hate About You, like that ‘90s grunge updated with a pop version

Sam: Like that movie, Josie and the Pussycats

Bianca: Don't you dare say anything bad about Josie and the Pussycats

honk

Sam: I’m not! I love this song, it’s my favourite so far

Hannah: It’s Never Been Kissed-esque

Bianca: Yeah! Definitely. I love that calypso drum in the end

Sam: This is my favourite since Chandelier

Hannah: It’s nice that this one is not trying to be ballad-y

Bianca: Shameless fun

 

Straight for the Knife:

Bianca: It feels like she’s hyperlinking back to Big Girls Cry 

Hannah: Her mascara is running in this one

Sam: I like the really pop lyric of “you went straight for the knife and I prepared to die”. It’s so over-the-top but that’s what great pop music is I think

Hannah: This doesn’t have anything particularly grabby about it

Sam: No it doesn’t

Hannah: It has these big proclamations without any 'oomph' in the song

Sam: It needs like strings and a massive drum at the end. If you’re going to go over the top, go over the top, fall over the cliff. The thing is with this album I don’t hate it but at the moment I’m so-so

Hannah: This oscillates between being good background music and ballads

 

Fair Game

Sam: Love it

Hannah: It has R&B moments as well as indie moments

Bianca: Was that a glockenspiel?

Sam: I think it might have been

Bianca: Always glockin’

Sam: It’s like she’s taken the R&B thing and stripped it all back to one line of keys that runs underneath it. And the verses are so subtle and wordy

Hannah: The way she bounces between her words is very ‘90s R&B but also contemporary

Sam: Less is more

Bianca: I feel it could soundtrack the end of American Pie where they all finally lose their virginities after the prom

Sam: It is the calm after the storm

 

Elastic Heart

Hannah: I really like it

Bianca: I like the backing vocals

Sam: I think Diplo’s production gives it something extra

Hannah: It has a dance edge to it. If you sped it up a bit and thumped up the bass you could be dancing to that

Bianca: It would be really good remixed

Sam: Yeah. And I like that she’s dropped The Weeknd by the way. I think if you’re going to have no guests on the album, go all Sia

Hannah: She’s enough. She’s all we need

 

Free The Animal

Sam: I love everything apart from the chorus

Bianca: The chorus ruins everything

Hannah: The verses are great. They’re hi-hoppy and poppy and have sparse beats as well as a constant groove. They’re great verses. The rest is bland

Sam: It’s pure pop candy followed by an iron boot

Bianca: The breakdown after the chorus is good. She’s experimenting. Yelling Free The Animal is just too much though. Everytime it goes to the chorus it feels like I’ve switched to 2Dayfm

 

Fire Meet Gasoline

Bianca: A match made in heaven

Sam + Hannah: Ooooooooh

Hannah: A pun 3 minutes in the making

Bianca: No it just came to me. It just sparked (Laughs)

Sam: This is one of my favourite. It’s very overtly pop but at the sametime I think I just love how it is Fire Meet Gasoline, not Meets. It’s like she’s introducing the two and there’s something I find really cool about that. Taking off the 'S' I’m like, I’m sold and I don’t even know why

Bianca: Does she know fire or gasoline better?

Hannah: Fire

Sam: Fire and she’s not sure how it’s gonna go and she’s bringing the fire towards the gasoline like that shit’s gonna blow her up

Bianca: I think that wig is highly flammable

Sam: This album is very dangerous. There’s knives and fire and we’re about to go into cellophane. All those things together…

Hannah: Sia likes it rough

Sam: Did she write S&M?

 

Cellophane

Hannah: Least favourite so far

Sam: Yeah me too

Bianca: Doesn’t do it for me

Hannah: I think I’m already battered and bruised from the rest of the album

Sam: It’s too much. There’s cellophane and then the electricity has done something to her brain

Bianca: I don’t know how this could be the second last song on the album

Sam: I think the second last song is always the worst because people get complacent

Hannah: This is a bit of a filler

Sam: She’s gotta end well otherwise she’s leaving with a bad tatse

 

Dressed In Black

Bianca: I think it’s a good end to the album

Sam: Me too. She’s been able to use all those dramatic metaphors and is like “yeah, I’m happy now”. At the same time, it kind of gets there but it never hits the heights of Chandelier. When I first heard Chandelier I thought it was a great start to the album but now I think I would’ve started it with Elastic Heart and put Chandelier in the middle

Hannah: Yeah, after Chandelier it just bubbles

Sam: Maybe it grows on you

 

Overall

Bianca: Good work Sia, she did well

Sam: It’s a good pop album. When it comes down to it she’s a great pop writer, she’s got a great voice and she’s an Aussie girl who made it big. It’s a nice story

Bianca: I’m going to give it a 7/10

Hannah: 7.6 because it always has to beat Lana Del Rey’s Pitchfork rating

Sam: I was going to give it the same, 7. I think it’s good.

Bianca: On that note...Sia!

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