Sia - We Are Born

Leave it to Sia Furler to start hyping her new June 8 22 album We Are Born by announcing that "it was time for me to make a really shallow pop album." But somehow when Sia says it you know that there's always something a little more interesting going on and the Born tracks, all co-produced with Greg Kursten (The Bird and the Bee, Lily Allen), are indeed the brightly colored, uninhibited pop confections that she's been promising. As the uptempo flip side to her last album, 2008's Some People Have Real Problems and her earlier work with art-pop studio dudes Zero 7, Sia's sunny, exuberant new songs manage to maintain the ultra-melodic songcraft that have marked her solo albums while charting a new course into bubbly, synth-driven dancefloor territory.

Much like Alison Goldfrapp and her new dance-beat heavy Head First, Sia's We Are Born is a throwback to the retro disco-ball era of her youth, a time when British new wave bands like Gang of Four, Duran Duran and ABC made glittery, pumped up beats an integral part of the rock and pop mix. "Suddenly I was listening to more up-tempo music and old dance music," Sia says, "and I thought, 'Wow. This is fun." Along with Kursten's vast electronica bag of tricks, Sia also gets support on the new songs -- many of which were written years ago --  from Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi. In the end, she sums, "it was the best experience I've ever had recording an album."

Sia - "I'm In Here" (from the album We Are Born)

Sia - "Clap Your Hands" (from the album We Are Born)