Owner of one of the sexiest voices in pop, jazzily sultry where the dominant style is tough, Australian-born New Yorker Sia Furler has been performing and recording since she was a teenager in the ’90s – her “Breathe Me,” from a mellower period, soundtracks the final scene of HBO’s Six Feet Under. Following collaborations with Christina Aguilera, she promised a star coming-out party with last year’s We Are Born, its bold musicality like an AM-radio Janelle Monae with the Strokes’ Nick Valensi adding crisp, trebly guitar. She abruptly stopped touring for health reasons, but now returns still something of an eclectic folk-pop neo-soulstress live, but ready for dance.
This article appears in Aug 4-10, 2011.