I spent years waiting for Elizabeth Fraser to drill a musical hole in the center of my forehead like she did back in the day. But Jeff Buckley's death ended the Cocteau Twins and practically speaking, ended her career.
Sia popped out of nowhere and gave me a lot of what I'd been waiting for from Liz: that ecstatic celebration of pure voice. Of course, there are considerable differences between the two, not the least of which is that unlike Liz Fraser, Sia is actually a Terrestrial. And Sia's music is grounded in traditional pop idioms. At its best, her music sound like the great old 70s hits you remember but never actually heard
This video ingeniously works around the inconvenient fact that Sia is not pretty. And she's also goofy, gawky and slightly unhinged. And what's more, she doesn't care that she is not pretty or that she comes across like Jim Breuer doing a mean-spirited Jim Carrey impersonation.
Of course, when you have the Voice of God herself you don't need to do anything but let it loose. It's the Tracy Thorne school of divahood. God gives these girls vocal cords spun of celestial gossamer secure in the knowledge that they won't squander their gift rolling around on the floor signing some regurgitated dance pap.