This Is Acting

Sia - This Is Acting
Critic Score
Based on 31 reviews
2016 Ratings: #839 / 1004
User Score
Based on 619 ratings
2016 Rank: #704
Liked by 30 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

83
Entertainment Weekly
Somehow ... broad strokes suit these songs; Sia’s unabashed aim is uplift, and her feel for sing-along-until-your-neighbor-bangs-on-the-radiator hooks rarely falters.
83
A.V. Club
Gone is the uncertainty that still clung to many of her earlier efforts at mainstream pop hits of her own; success has granted her the confidence to dive into the deep end of the mainstream music pool, and the results are potent.
80
The Irish Times

If there's a downside it's that the songs aren't necessarily emotionally connected to the songwriter, but they're of such high quality they are – to use an appropriate album track title – Unstoppable. A soundtrack to summer if ever there was one.

80
The Arts Desk
The lyrics read like an autobiography, chronicling her battle against the limelight.
80
NME
If you can buy into its concept, Sia’s play-acting is very entertaining indeed.
80
The Line of Best Fit
It’s a brave act on Furler’s part, to stand up and present a body of work that so many other people deemed not good enough, but ultimately, it’s a great collection of pop songs, cynical or not.
70
Exclaim!

This Is Acting is a fine follow-up to 1000 Forms of Fear, but doesn't quite present anything extraordinary or new.

70
AllMusic

This Is Acting's meta-pop is another example of how cleverly Sia brings her her experiments into the mainstream.

70
No Ripcord

Every track is a potential hit, and Sia’s use of pure pop hooks, coupled with an astounding control over her rampant voice, makes this a very good record.

68
Pitchfork
In a few short years, Sia has gone from subverting the mainstream to being the mainstream, and in light of that transformation, you'd expect more than a play-by-play recreation of her most recent highlights.
67
Consequence of Sound

Unlike her brashly honest and personal 2014 breakthrough 1000 Forms of Fear, which yielded the glitter-and-guts Grammy-nominated “Chandelier”, This Is Acting partially concedes to emotional detachment.

67
Pretty Much Amazing

This is Acting serves less as another step down her path and more like a look back on all the ground she has covered thus far.

60
The Telegraph
This is what you get when you strip away all pretence of art and soul, when you subtract charisma, style and personality and boil pop down to pure formula.
60
The Observer
Very little of her pop is dull, even when she is trying to write for lowest common denominator mass appeal.
60
Q Magazine
Australian songwriter-turned-star runs out of her trademark pop hooks.
60
The Independent

It’s a pity there are some disappointing songs here because elsewhere on the record there is real brilliance.

60
NOW Magazine
You can imagine any number of today’s pop divas tackling these tunes, and while Furler has insisted she’s “play-acting” by singing the material, she manages to cut through generic themes to inject darker predilections with hard-sung vocals that sound downright masochistic at times.
60
Drowned in Sound

This is Acting has some good tracks on it and is obviously written by a very talented songwriter, it’s just not an album that demands excitement from its listeners.

60
Uncut
Where her other albums are more varied, this all-guns-blazing pop portfolio is a touch wearying.
60
The Guardian

Of course, that’s the problem with formulae: they have a marked tendency to become a bit formulaic. That’s something you suspect Furler, clearly a smart cookie, may have realised. Perhaps This Is Acting is intended as a tying up of loose ends before she tries something different.

60
Billboard

Despite a few highlights, This Is Acting is scattered and forgettable next to the emotional 1000 Forms of Fear.

60
Slant Magazine
It's the autobiographical, soul-plumbing depths of Sia's songwriting, however, that made her previous efforts feel so immediate, so personal, and ironically, the songs here whose origins have been most widely publicized ... come closest to capturing that potency.
60
Rolling Stone
Sometimes these outtakes feel like, well, outtakes.
60
DIY
Too often ‘This is Acting’ is steeped in unimaginative cliche, and leans too heavily on familiar pop tropes in a way that her previous solo albums did not.
60
SPIN
Despite being so joyously engulfed by Sia’s voice, the songs come over as dispossessed orphans, all a variation on that same theme of being lost and held down by overbearing powers and temptations.
60
PopMatters

This Is Acting, for all its backstory, rousing highlights, and questionable stylistic choices, actually feels like more of a placeholder than it was probably intended to be.

60
musicOMH
There are only so many times in 45 minutes you can clench your fists and reach for the sky without it beginning to feel a bit too calculated and contrived. But then, isn’t that what acting is all about?
50
FLOOD Magazine
Great songs, yes, but without Sia’s nervy verve.
50
Tiny Mix Tapes

She’s built an admirable persona that’s both mask and mirror — maybe next time she can show us something we don’t already know.

40
Clash

It’s obviously understandable to attempt to capitalise upon the success of your best-known hit but on ‘This Is Acting’, Sia loses sight of what made her such an interesting artist in the first place.

40
Evening Standard
Sia brings thunderous production but little substance on this collection of songs she wrote for other singers.
LukasLima
75

* Bird Set Free (9.5/10)
* Alive (8.5/10)
* One Million Bullets (6.5/10)
* Move Your Body (6/10)
* Unstoppable (8/10)
* Cheap Thrills (10/10)
* Reaper (7.5/10)
* House On Fire (7.5/10)
* Footprints (7/10)
* Sweet Design (5.5/10)
* Broken Glass (7/10)
* Space Between (7/10)

Nota Final: 75/100

Missing_Lyriks
55

I assume those hands aren’t yours?

Not too many songs stand out here. ‘Bros Set Free’ is an immediate stand out, but the rest pales compared to it.

EMR
34

After a long time running on the side lines, it seems Sia has finally given up on being on the "outside" of mainstream pop. The amazing singer returns with an album that seems to turn her into pretty much everything she refused to represent a few years ago. Of course she had already flirted with mainstream pop by the time the David Guetta singles (She Wolf and Titanium) hit the radios a few years ago, and then complimented the rising pop-star status with the 1000 Forms of Fear album, ... read more

87

Esquecivel em certos momentos mas com músicas realmente incríveis (tirando Sweet Design que é provavelmente uma das piores coisas que eu já ouvi na minha vida).

alliensuperstar
80

Masterclass in pop perfection, showcasing the singer-songwriter's unparalleled talent for crafting infectious melodies and powerhouse vocals. From the anthemic "Unstoppable" to the emotionally charged "Bird Set Free" and the empowering "Alive," each track is a testament to Sia's ability to captivate listeners with her raw emotion and undeniable charisma.

✅Unstoppable 10
✅Bird Set Free 10
✅Alive 10
✅Move Your Body 9,5
✅House on Fire 9
✅One Million ... read more

ItaReviews
60

I like my time listen to this album is just kinda there is you cant with the theme like yeah if the stronge resist feeling is in almost every song that may tired you,after all the hooks are great has other more pop with this album i mean not bad just like my score review needs more constantcy with other themes or like more vibrant feelings more than (i still alive or im unstopabble) not bad songs tho just yeah that feeling is almost half of the album

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Track List

1Bird Set Free
4:12
85
2Alive
4:23
83
3One Million Bullets
4:12
72
4Move Your Body
4:07
86
5Unstoppable
3:37
75
6Cheap Thrills
3:31
84
7Reaper
3:39
81
8House On Fire
4:01
80
9Footprints
3:13
76
10Sweet Design
2:25
61
11Broken Glass
4:24
76
12Space Between
4:48
77
Total Length: 46 minutes
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Added on: November 3, 2015