As all of us inclined to the Dark Side know, Everyday is Halloween: but that impressively-piped, chandelier-swinging Sia was misguided and has somehow come to believe that Everyday Is Christmas. Hence the name of her new, all-original Christmas collection, which arrives on Friday, November 17th, 2017 thanks to Monkey Puzzle/Atlantic Records.
Australian Singer-Songwriter Sia was born one week before Christmas, so it is safe to say that the Holiday is embedded in her bones. For the first thirteen years of her career – from 1997’s OnlySee to 2010’s We Are Born – Sia was, unfortunately, largely overlooked in The States. A vocal tour de force, Sia received her “big break” thanks to several collaborations with Top 40 hot-shots, namely “Titanium” with David Guetta, “Diamonds” with Rihanna, and “Wild Ones” with Flo Rida.
Bringing her magnificent talents to the forefront, it paved the way for U.S. fans to finally jump on-board with this truly amazing, artistic soul, leading to her sixth album, 2014’s 1000 Forms of Fear, debuting at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. What has followed has been a beautiful adventure that produced 2016’s phenomenal This Is Acting, and continues to rake in long overdue accolades and honors for the exceptional songstress.
So what is a marvelously gifted vocalist and songwriter, born right before Santa Claus arrived, to do when she is on top of the world? Co-written and co-produced with longtime collaborator, Grammy Award-winning Greg Kurstin (Adele, Kelly Clarkson), the ten-song, all-original collection, Everday Is Christmas, is Sia’s eighth studio offering and her first Christmas compilation. A wonderfully fun collection that presents Pop-friendly dance numbers alongside beautiful Holiday ballads, this is a titanium set that shimmers like diamonds (Those puns are your Christmas gifts!).
Everyday Is Christmas opens with lead-single, the adorable romp through December that is “Santa’s Coming for Us.” Horns accompany the superb Sia as she sashays her way through the Jazzy little sway, then into the delicious swish of “Candy Cane Lane,” a celebration of the colors and candies of Christmas. You can almost envision a legion of dancers weaving in and out of Holiday lights as Sia serenades them all!
It moves beautifully into a pair of ballads, the first of which is “Snowman,” where she weaves a Christmas love spell for her favorite Frosty while accompanied by some beautiful piano work, luscious bass, and gentle percussion. Similarly, the ballad “Snowflake” sprinkles a musical shine to accompany Sia’s bittersweet vocals, pleading with the white to not forget us while beautifully appreciating the individuality of each flake. One might say that she is dreaming of a “White Christmas,” hmm?
The raucous dancer “Ho Ho Ho” sees Sia getting her Holiday drunk on, while chanting about whisky and bourbon and parading with the misfits. This would have been superb on the soundtrack for A Bad Moms Christmas! Counterbalancing the mayhem, she goes for the massive cuteness factory in “Puppies Are Forever.” If you want a puppy for Christmas, Sia has you covered with this ode to that adorable, fluffy face in the window who is for every day happiness and not just Holiday cheer! If you already have a puppy, you can dance with your four-legged bestie to this upbeat, swinging good time that should have included a bark-a-long track!
Recognizing that December is not always the brightest month – literally and metaphorically, that is – Sia toils away in her workshop at the North Pole to bring the “Sunshine” on a gentle hip-shaker full of happiness and upbeat cheer. She then sings of rushing to be “Underneath the Mistletoe” with her schoolgirl crush, celebrating the Holidays with the one she lusts, before the sensual sound of album namesake “Everyday Is Christmas” compares a beautiful relationship to the bounty of gifts given on December 25th. The end result is a show-stopper that you will want to play while you and your honey gaze into the fire on Christmas Eve, exhausted but madly in love with one another and Christmas. Wrapping the entire collection up with a silver bow, “Underneath the Christmas Lights” is a peaceful yet somewhat lackadaisical offering. That is, however, perfectly okay, as even the laziest of tracks coming from Sia sound lovely.
Everyday Is Christmas is a collection to bring Holiday cheer to the entire family, whether you are the Bad Mom in need of a bourbon or the puppy-loving toddler. While nothing quite compares to this talented gal’s original, non-Christmas material, her take on December 25th is superbly fun and injects a dose of sass into the day that Santa Claus’ rules the world. For these reasons, CrypticRock give Sia’s Everyday Is Christmas 5 of 5 stars.
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Not sure where this review of Sia’s Xmas album comes form. The first time I heard Santa’s Coming for Us I thought how could a producer sit on the other side of the glass and think “We should put this on a record.” It’s horrible, laughable and is very much the norm of today’s music producers selling chicken salad when it’s actually chicken shit.
Sorry but if it’s truly believed that Sia has a great voice then an album should sound a hell of a lot better than that.
Sorry that you didn’t enjoy the album, Henry. Fortunately or unfortunately, reviews are subjective: what I enjoy will never be what everyone else enjoys. So in this instance, we disagreed. That’s all, that’s life. 🙂
The intent of Candy Cane Lane is wonderful, but Sia’s diction is so strange that the lyrics are unintelligible….as one critic of EVERYDAY IS CHRISTMAS put it, she sings as if ” she has a mouthful of Christmas candy”. It’s not a problem caused by an Australian accent…the diction is just bad.
We know and accept that diction in rock singing hasn’t been a priority in decades… but this is Christmas pop !
We’re surprised that the singer and the producer blew off this aspect…it kind of makes the (otherwise good) song obnoxious.