This year see's the release of the seventh studio album by Australian singer/songwriter Sia, entitled "This Is Acting." This new album is the follow-up to her massively successful 2014 record "1000 Forms of Fear," which had some of the biggest hits of that year "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart." Now, "This Is Acting" unlike the previous album is 95% composed of songs that she wrote for other big artists. With that in mind, "This Is Acting" showcases Sia doing what the titles says, acting. Sia is on most of these songs (minus the only song allegedly written specifically for this album"One Million Bullets") is acting the part of whomever she originally wrote the song for. This may create a sense of fakeness to the album, but Sia does a really good job at selling her performances. The songwriting is overall very solid track to track, with the powerful anthem "Alive, the Kanye West produced "Reaper," and the well written and criminally-short "Footprints" being the album's highlights. "This Is Acting" does have its non memorable and unrewarding songs like "Cheap Thrills," which has some tacky children's voices on the chorus and the underwhelming closer "Space Between." The album is mainly filled with good but not incredibly memorable tracks. There also some songs like the incomplete sounding "Sweet Design" and the repetitive "Broken Glass"that are very good, well written songs that are held back by sloppy songwriting. "Sweet Design" for whatever reason ends abruptly, which leaves a awkward transition into "Broken Glass." The album's musical production is nothing to write home about either, but it does get the job done. The beautifully melodic strings on "Footprints" add a much bigger scope and power to the track that it would not have been as strong without it. The gospel organs on "Reaper" also add a nice touch to the song. The production is mainly electronic, which may get a little tiring after awhile especially because the album is 99% written with the pop song-structure. "This Is Acting" does not have the best album feel either. It really just feels like a collection of pop songs plopped unto one disc, which to be honest, is not that big of a deal, but it may bother others.
Overall, "This Is Acting" is a solid pop-album with a few great tracks and a lot of just good ones. I give it my rating of a 7.6/10
Favorite Tracks: Alive, Reaper, and Footprints
Least Favorite: Cheap Thrills and Space Between
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