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Sia gives holiday albums a new flare with pop, dance songs

Artist shows her versatility with Christmas-themed project
Sia gives holiday albums a new flare with pop, dance songs
Courtesy of Flickr user The Wong Way

Sia’s songwriting skills allow her to make catchy hits for herself and other artists, and she shows this talent and her vocal ability yet again on her latest holiday album, Everyday Is Christmas.

Judging from the name of the album and the cover art — which shows Sia’s regular dancer Maddie Ziegler wearing a half green, half red wig — one would expect the album to hold the standard holiday happy-go-lucky songs. Sia takes the listener by surprise with an album of dance-pop that makes you forget you’re listening to a Christmas album.

All of the songs have Christmas-centered lyrics, but they are nothing like the songs you would here on the radio in December. The opening track, “Santa’s Coming For Us,” has such a catchy beat that if I heard the song without paying too much attention to the lyrics, I would think I was listening to Today’s Top Hits.

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https://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2017/11/20/hitlist-hips-songs-your-mom-will-like/

This is the same for the majority of the album. The catchy beat of each song with Sia’s unique pop voice makes me move my body and bop my head. Perhaps I’m just used to Sia releasing pop-hits and have a reflex of dancing, but her ability to turn a Christmas album into a fun experience really shows her versatility.

Perhaps the most relatable song on the album is “Puppies Are Forever.” I, like the majority of the human population, realize how adorable puppies are, but when Sia sings about them I couldn’t stop thinking about all the precious dogs of the world and my dog that I’ll be seeing over break.

In the song, she sings, “Puppies are forever, not just for Christmas / Cause they’re so cute and fluffy with shiny coats/
But will you love ’em when they’re old and slow?” For Sia, the answer seems to be yes. The song’s pre-chorus explains how she found her best friend at the dog pound. Dogs barking in the background of the track make this song even more enjoyable.

https://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2017/11/20/tove-lo-loses-her-club-hits-on-third-studio-album/

On past albums, Sia makes sure to throw in slower-paced songs to take things down a notch, and she continues this trend on her latest release. She also tends to write her songs around a specific noun, like she did with “Chandelier” and “Elastic Heart.” She continues these themes with songs like “Snowman” and “Snowflake.”

On “Snowflake,” Sia sings to a very special person in her life. She sings, “There’s no one like you, so I’m gonna hide you/
My sweet.”

Though the album is only 10 songs and clocks in at 35 minutes, most listeners will want to play it on repeat. It’s the perfect combination of holiday cheer and pop, making it a unique must-listen Christmas album. Sia outdid herself once again.

Rank: 4.5/5

 

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