Eric Saeger
If Zero 7 is your choice of quasi-electro chill, Aussie chanteuse Sia Furler’s sort of an old homie. Her last sounding was on the 2006 Zero 7 album The Garden, where she was assigned a few knuckleball tunes, though none that come close to revealing her more barmy (and original) side; the Z7 dudes tend to use her as a Stevie Nicks/R n B diva-bot widget, which is in the end toward their collective detriment, a little. Certainly her strength is makeout music for people taken in by the Zach Braff school of modern ennui – a little acid jazz, 70s fluff, any laid-backness one might associate with lukewarm lust in the urban jungle – and she makes use of it, in spades, with several hit-worthy songs on Some People, notably “Little Black Sandals,” its title telegraphing the punch of its Gabrielle-like prettiness (yep, it could have been the flip-side to “Dreams”). Furler is quite adept with scatting, though; lead single “Day Too Soon,” full of 70s mystique and splashy drums, shows that she’s been digging on Amy Winehouse’s throatiness and nu-big-band chic. Same thing occurs in one tangent of “Beautiful Calm Driving,” another telegraphing of effect, which is otherwise one of her most reserved, contemplative tracks, up to and including the full stop that comes mid-tune.
