SiA: Colour The Small One : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Two years after its overseas release, Sia's second album and solo American debut finally hit U.S. stores on the strength of demand for "Breathe Me," the delicate and haunting track that accompanied Six Feet Under's climactic final scene. Born Sia Kate Isobelle Furler, this Australia-raised, England-based singer previously sang and co-wrote songs for chill-out duo Zero 7, and Colour the Small One brings similarly lazy tempos, hazy vocals, shuffling beats and soft atmospherics. It's an exhausted formula, and although "Breathe Me" manages to transcend it on the strength of the tune and its beloved associations, there's nothing else here that demands or deserves that kind of attention. Sia's murmured croon, imprecise diction and tendency to overdub herself into marshmallow-mouthed mush reduces her presence to an indistinct blur. She sounded more like a star when she cameoed in Zero 7 than she does on most of her own album.