Be a reasonable woman

Both Kate Isobelle Furler she launched herself into musicbiz keeping only her first name. Today the Australian musician turns 49. We celebrate her by offering you the review of the last of her ten albums, “Reasonable Woman”.

Sia is a chameleon. Where you put it, it fits: it adapts to the context by camouflaging itself, while always remaining true to itself, coherently inconsistent. This is confirmed by the fifteen songs contained in this “Reasonable woman”, the first album of unreleased songs by the Australian singer-songwriter – a life spent behind the scenes writing hits for others, from “You lost me” by Christina Aguilera to “Diamonds” by Rihanna, first of the turning point of 2014 with “Chandelier” – in even eight years. Woe to think that Sia Kate Isobelle Furler, this is her real name, was left twiddling her thumbs after the release of “This is acting” in 2016: in 2017 she released the Christmas album “Everyday is Christmas”, in 2018 he founded the supergroup LSD together with Labirinth and Diplo (do you remember the hits “Genius”, “Audio” and “Thunderclouds”? Here, those), in 2021 he signed the soundtrack of the film “Music”, his directorial debut (both a critical and commercial flop).

And then the duets with practically everyone, from Zayn to Bts, from Major Lazer to Sean Paul, passing through Arca. “Reasonable woman” collects material that Sia has worked on over the years together with hitmakers such as Benny Blanco, Jesse Shatkin, Greg Kurstin, Labirinth. The songs, all different from each other in terms of sound, atmosphere and flavour, are all potential radio hits: after all, writing hits designed to prove themselves as such is the specialty of the house and once again Sia does not disappoint, never mind if the album then sounds more like a sort of greatest hits that as an album with a precise identity and with an idea at the center. There are at least two pieces that stand out above the others.

One is the single “Gimme love”, anthemic and pounding power pop, perfect to be sung at the top of one’s lungs by packed arenas. The other is the duet with Kylie Minogue – but among the guests there are also the iconic Chaka Khan, Tierra Whack, Kaliii and even Paris Hilton, in “Fame won’t love you” – on “Dance alone”: the queen of 80s and 90s pop returns the favor after Sia had signed “Sexercize” and “Kiss me once” for her in 2014. The Australian singer-songwriter proves herself capable of wearing a thousand different costumes, one for every occasion, unleashing herself on songs like “One night” and going much deeper on “I head a heart”, the latter written together with Rosalía (and I don’t you would say: there is nothing that makes you think that the Spanish superstar was involved).