Dig These Discs :: Sia, Chairlift, Eliot Sumner, Bloc Party, Santigold

Australian singer/songwriter and famous recluse Sia, known for hiding behind her oversize platinum bangs, releases an excellent seventh album. Philly-born singer Santigold drops her third album, "99cents," looking at the commercial nature of our world. London singer Eliot Sumner releases her first full-length album, "Information," this month, after a summer that saw sneak peeks of four singles. Bloc Party, aka Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack, release their fifth studio album after 16 years together. And Brooklyn-based synthpop duo Chairlift releases their third album, a pop spectacle of ten songs.

"This Is Acting" (Sia)

Australian singer/songwriter and recluse Sia releases her seventh studio album, "This Is Acting," and it's another winner! This famously reclusive singer is known for hiding behind her oversize platinum bangs, but her vocal stylings are hardly shy. Her blend of hip-hop, funk and soul is infectious, her songs are sung by the world's most renowned artists including Christina Aguilera, Beyonc� and Rihanna, and the ones she keeps for herself rack up prizes from the ARIA Awards to MTV Music Awards. She kicks things off in style with one of the album's best, "Bird Set Free" singing, "I had a voice, had a voice but could not talk/ You held me down, I struggle to fly now." She was born in a thunderstorm and grew up overnight, in "Alive." Sia bemoans her poor choices, singing, "I pick the wrong kind, but baby you're alright," perhaps referencing her 2014 marriage to filmmaker Erik Anders Lang. Previously, Sia was candid about her bisexuality, having been involved with lesbian musician JD Samson of Le Tigre fame, which is when this reviewer first met her. You'll be ready to hit the dance floor when you hear "Move Your Body" and "Cheap Thrills," in which she promises, "Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight... I don't need no money, as long as I keep dancing." Joke's on you; she's already got $4M. Her "Unstoppable" has the intense patter of "Chandelier" as she sings, "I'll tell you what you wanna hear, leave my sunglasses on while I shed a tear." She eludes to him who "came to take me away" in "Reaper," saying, "no baby, not today." She slows things down in "House on Fire" with its excellent percussion, which carries over into "Footprints." Her fast-moving cut "Sweet Design" sounds like it was meant for Beyonc�. She gets emotional in "Broken Glass" and caps an amazing album with the moving track "Space Between." Critically speaking, it's time we all concede that Sia is hands-down the most talented songwriter of this decade.
(RCA)

"99cents" (Santigold)

Philly-born singer Santigold, born Santi White, releases her third album, "99cents," looking at the commercial nature of our world. She kicks her dozen tracks off with "Can't Get Enough of Myself," the quirky tune with an island electro beat, featuring B.C. "We have no illusion that we don't live in this world where everything is packaged," said Santigold. "People's lives, persona, everything is deliberate and mediated." While she may be relatively unknown to many, she first caught this reviewer's attention with her picture-perfect cut of The Jam's "Pretty Green" on Mark Ronson's 2007 album, "Version." She is a heavy hitter in "Big Boss Big Time Business." The fast-moving clap track of "Banshee" will elicit the response Santigold clearly desired, as she warns in her mezzo-soprano, "Tell you get outta my way, don't wanna hear what you say." Her style is a mix of alt rock and reggae, with a New Wave feel. Her songs often feature an infectious hook that keeps it moving, like the "hup" sound in "Chasing Shadows." You'll like the sonic vibe in "Walking in A Circle." "Tell me what it's gonna be, cause I got girls around the world who be lovin' me," sings guest ILOVEMAKONNEN in "Who Be Lovin Me." Santigold's fast-paced "Rendezvous Girl" is one of the best singles on the album, and "All I Got" is a solid track. "I just need a little touch, a little color on the gray scale," she sings in "Before the Fire," another excellent cut. She gets dark in the intense "Outside the War" and melds reggae and sonic sounds in "Run the Races." Santigold wraps up a superb third album with "Who I Thought You Were," proving she is more than capable of holding her own in a complicated musical landscape.
(Atlantic Records)

"Information" (Eliot Sumner)

London singer Eliot Sumner releases her first full-length album, "Information," this month, after a summer that saw sneak peeks of four singles. Sumner's androgynous alto and gender-bending moniker keeps many thinking she's a man, baby. But this Krautrock-inspired artist has her own signature sound that fans have come to love. Her album is a collection of a dozen intense synth-pop rhythms with scathing lyrics. "I run to the left I run to the right, and all my fears come alive," she sings in her first cut, "Dead Arms & Dead Legs." She looks for secrets from your past in "Information," and gets a real '90s vibe singing about her 'dangerous obsession' in "Let My Love Lie On Your Life." Sumner needs the afterlight to see in "After Dark" with its kooky keyboard arpeggios. A clock chiming kicks off the hard-rocking shredder "Halfway to Hell," which proves as good as its name. It's back to back with the equally hard-rocking "I Followed You Home," as Sumner sings a bit ominously, "I guess I never really knew the lengths that I would go for you; is it dangerous to follow you back home?" The tune "What Good Could Ever Come Of This" is optimistic despite its best efforts, and tries to do better in "Come Friday." The world is ending and she's come to say goodbye in her early single, "Firewood," one of the best on the album. The pounding bass beat of "Species" keeps the tune moving along, and the repetitive "In Real Life" is catchy despite its simplicity. Sumner just finished a European tour with dates in London, Berlin and more.
(Cherrytree/Interscope)

"HYMNS" (Bloc Party)

Bloc Party, aka Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack, release their fifth studio album after 16 years together. They started writing together in 2014, and were joined at various stages by the two new members who have made Bloc Party a four-piece again: bassist Justin Harris, who the band met in his previous guise as a part of the Portland indie rock band Menomena, and drummer Louise Bartle, a 21-year-old that the pair discovered on YouTube, and who Lissack said, "blew us away." "Bloc Party started with just Kele and I, and we used to write the songs together. We found other people and grew from that. It feels like that's happened again," said Lissack. "It's good to have someone bringing that energy of doing it for the first time. It's made us all excited about going forward." Their first track, "The Love Within" melds a discordant intro with distorted keyboard samples. Lissack's voice rings like a bell in cuts like "So Real," as he sings, "What am I supposed to do, when the only good thing about me was you?" The acoustic guitar doesn't tamper the intensity of "The Good News," singing, "I used to find the answers in the gospel of St. John, now I find them in the bottom of this shot glass." "Put it on me like no one's watching; like it's the first time we kissed," they sing in "Fortress." "Different Drugs" is a layered but at the same time stark piece, and "Into the Earth" is an intense and primal song. The poppy bass of "My True Name" is catchy, and cadges the hook, "If you're looking for devotion," from Robin S.'s "Show Me Love." "Temptation hides in the space between," they sing in "Virtue." He bemoans loss of the person who "was more to me than all of this" in "Exes," and finishes up strong with "Living Lux." The deluxe edition includes three additional tracks. Block Party will hit the road this fall for a World Tour, from the UK to Amsterdam, Australia, Belgium, Berlin and more.
(Infectious Music/BMG/Vagrant Records)

"Moth" (Chairlift)

Brooklyn-based synthpop duo Chairlift releases their third album, a pop spectacle of ten songs. You'll get chills up your spine from their insectoid intro in the first song, "Look Up," a short, eerie tune with unusual sound effects. They follow it with "Polymorphing," with the quirky chorus, "Oh darling, if this heart was a garden would you till it? If this life was a pulse would you feel it? If this love was a wound would you heal it?" The first cut, "Ch-Ching" with its excellent bass track, got raves for its enigmatic lyrics, "I put the stash in the bookshelf/ Open your mouth and I'll slip you the key/ Now catch that combination like 29-99-23." It was followed by their follow-up track "Romeo," both named among the best by Pitchfork. "Crying in Public" will get your emotions high as a "tough guy" is melted into a puddle of tears while Caroline Polachek sings the chorus, "Sorry I'm causing a scene on the train, I'm falling for you." They've got "a lesson to learn" in the formulaic "Ottawa to Osaka," and you'll groove out in the title track "Moth to the Flame," as they sing, "When the game's already lost before it starts, hope lies inside a clich�." The most radio-ready R&B cut is the fly "Show U Off," with its infectious bass beat. "You'll be a star within my sky," sings Polachek in "Unfinished Business," wrapping up the album with "No Such Thing As Illusion." The band hits the road in March with shows in Los Angeles and other California locales, before running through Canada to Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah and other Western states. They end on April 10 back home, at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg.
(Columbia Records)

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