Sia's Real Problems Pleases

Folk and acid-jazz queen Sia Furler has returned with her first record in four years, and critics are singing the praises of Some People Have Real Problems. The New York Sun’s Bret McCabe pokes fun at Furler for signing with the Starbucks label—provenance of “laid-back background music that is easily ignored while waiting for a non-fat mocha latte”—but applauds her “blustery, soulful" vocals.

Sia transcends adult-contemporary clichés with an “odd stylistic mix,” he writes. The former Zero 7 singer “knows when to dial it back,” Scott Thrill says in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. She's so sultry that she ensures raging hormones—and yet brainy enough to “deliver a mournful rap about language and split infinitives” on a duet with Beck. (More Sia Furler stories.)