As if the song wasn't enough, Dance Moms' very own star student Maddie puts on the performance of a lifetime in Chandelier, the video. And I think she's like 12. I heard that this song has been in the top 10 for some ridiculous amount of weeks, and I'm not surprised. At all.
Taking the bittersweet drink-in-my-cup mode up a notch, Sia and Maddie set a new bar. I remember once when I was hungover the day after a wedding, I refused to leave the hotel because I couldn't move. And then Dance Moms came on. It was so ridiculous at the time, but soon after I got it. And Maddie did too. She nailed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM
― surm, Monday, 29 September 2014 13:11 (nine years ago) link
There are points in this song where Sia's voice sounds like steel wool being rubbed against glass and it makes my teeth hurt.
― 💪😈⚠️ (DJP), Monday, 29 September 2014 13:17 (nine years ago) link
Nearing self-parody here in saying so but that I6 chord on "Chandelier", plus the song's lyrics entire, it pierces me and hits right between my heart and my liver. Hate her baby-talk vowels tho
― flambient 4: on goon (fgti), Monday, 29 September 2014 13:25 (nine years ago) link
this song is like My Heart Will Go On without the stratified build up. it's like eating a packet of chips for dinner.
― charlie h, Monday, 29 September 2014 13:27 (nine years ago) link
when i first heard this album i was merely bored but after listening to it a ton of times to review it i began to despise everything about it so hard
― lex pretend, Monday, 29 September 2014 13:27 (nine years ago) link
I was torn about the promo campaign. I couldn't tell if it was just poorly executed, or poor from the moment of conception... but the "suicide attempt + battling alcoholism" in the press release and interviews walked a fine line between "an honourable and generous amount of self-disclosure" and grasping for pity votes. Bag-on-head photos def bad. Such mixed feelings about this record. I stan for her collaborative stuff though she writes $mart
― flambient 4: on goon (fgti), Monday, 29 September 2014 13:32 (nine years ago) link
The euphoria of Chandelier's chorus manages to transcend her Tommy Pickles vocals and affected vowel strangulation. I haven't been enjoying the other singles I've heard on the radio from her album though.
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Monday, 29 September 2014 13:35 (nine years ago) link
i p much hate her as a $ongwriter as well. lazy, lazy hackwork and she admits to it as well
― lex pretend, Monday, 29 September 2014 13:36 (nine years ago) link
I read your piece on her and thought it was great tbh, it was critical-but-sensitive and never once insulting, super insightful
― flambient 4: on goon (fgti), Monday, 29 September 2014 13:42 (nine years ago) link
thankyou!
― lex pretend, Monday, 29 September 2014 13:44 (nine years ago) link
don't care about the rest of the album, whatever it is (and i haven't heard it), it was worth it
― surm, Monday, 29 September 2014 14:00 (nine years ago) link
Tommy Pickles vocals and affected vowel strangulation.
do you like bjork? not that sia is in the same universe as bjork in terms of talent or accomplishment, but "affected" vocals shouldn't be criticized out of hand. sia's songs would be incredibly boring if they were sung in a more conventional way. as it is, "chandelier" is a pretty good single although i admit i'm getting tired of it by now too.
― Treeship, Monday, 29 September 2014 14:03 (nine years ago) link
i prefer "eye of the needle" honestly, which i think was released a year or two ago
― Treeship, Monday, 29 September 2014 14:04 (nine years ago) link
also her habit of not facing the audience when she performs -- and ellen's sensitive explanation of this to her audience before she played her show -- was A+ dumb theatrics. "believe me, that is her up there singing."
― Treeship, Monday, 29 September 2014 14:06 (nine years ago) link
Want to like it, probably would if she weren't pop, but feel like that style of performance just doesn't translate to the pop stage, the genuineness of the gesture feels out of place.
I don't hear Bjork in Sia's pronunciation at all, I hear the "hey baby girl everything is gonna be OK" Youtube
― flambient 4: on goon (fgti), Monday, 29 September 2014 15:10 (nine years ago) link
like this song a lot, and the video too.
― sean gramophone, Monday, 29 September 2014 15:16 (nine years ago) link
THOSE TWIRLS
― surm, Monday, 29 September 2014 15:23 (nine years ago) link
sia has pretty much been singing like this since the mid-'90s, go check out her old stuff.
― katherine, Monday, 29 September 2014 15:41 (nine years ago) link
i was just watching Dance Moms during dinner. i hadn't watched it in months. All the moms were talking about Maddie when I turned it on. They're 3 days away from "Nationals" - and Abby, the dance instructor, said she wasn't going to feature Maddie in a solo, but none of the moms believe it. They think she has something up her sleeve -- "there's no way," they were saying. Then Abby's rival choreographer shows up, with a chandelier made of apples as a gift. She was yelling about how Abby takes all the credit, when she doesn't really do anything. Abby didn't have much of a reaction -- and neither did Maddie -- until she left, when she said something like "I don't really know why she's bothering this girl. Because she was in a video that 50 million people have seen. Nobody knows your name. But everyone knows Maddie's."
― surm, Wednesday, 1 October 2014 01:56 (nine years ago) link
watching this video daily has become like taking a pill for me
― surm, Friday, 3 October 2014 00:23 (nine years ago) link
I don't like Chandelier, but not as good as B-Quirk? One of them is a real singer...
― Opus Gai (I M Losted), Saturday, 4 October 2014 00:55 (nine years ago) link
i think this is Sia's "night of the swallow"
― surm, Saturday, 4 October 2014 16:45 (nine years ago) link
this is the first i have heard of "dance moms". what is wrong with you, america
― lex pretend, Saturday, 4 October 2014 22:50 (nine years ago) link
lex, sweetie, you have no idea. dance moms is one of the good ones. Lifetime now airs series entitled LITTLE WOMEN: LOS ANGELES
about rich, drink, little people
also i just found out my friend knows the choreographer of this video (!!!!....eek)
― surm, Thursday, 9 October 2014 14:27 (nine years ago) link
*DRUNK
this might be my favorite movie since "Please Give" directed by Nicole Holofcener
― surm, Friday, 10 October 2014 01:25 (nine years ago) link
What I learnt in prison is: this is p much the v best song of the 10s
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Monday, 6 July 2015 16:03 (eight years ago) link
Lex accusing someone of lazy hackwork is like wo
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Monday, 6 July 2015 16:09 (eight years ago) link
Um doesn't look like you cared, but sorry Lex that ws rude and unfair. Imd I wasn't in the kindest frame of mind, having just been released from prison and all. Meanwhile I think Sia's consistently great and I kinda wonder if she doesn't get talked abt in here bc she's 40, bc she seems to have enough going on in the music/sales depts to warrant it
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Sunday, 26 July 2015 09:20 (eight years ago) link
Have you swung from a chandelier yet? Should be a goal.
― how's life, Sunday, 26 July 2015 10:46 (eight years ago) link
The only chandeliers I know of're in chandelier shops, and like surrounded by other chandeliers and not v far off the ground. Not rly the same. I MIGHT AS WELL STILL BE INSIDE, MAN
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Sunday, 26 July 2015 10:52 (eight years ago) link
man why would you retract that
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, 26 July 2015 15:32 (eight years ago) link
i listened to Titanium last night and it sounded amazing
― surm, Sunday, 26 July 2015 17:13 (eight years ago) link
xp seriously those two posts together are art
sia's rly good, altho historically she's as much indie-rock as pop so i get the ilm hatred
― gawker's psychotic monkeys (imago), Monday, 27 July 2015 01:13 (eight years ago) link
Totally understand if it's not something albvivertine can talk about, but I'm interested to know how prison in particular provoked enlightenment w/r/t this song
― carly bae jepsen (monotony), Monday, 27 July 2015 01:43 (eight years ago) link
Big swoony emotional chorus, was pretty transcendent in that miserable environment.
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Monday, 27 July 2015 01:48 (eight years ago) link
Also been listening to Titanium today and yeah it IS amazing, I'm liking the Moroder collaboration Deja Vu a lot too
― Classic Man (albvivertine), Monday, 27 July 2015 13:53 (eight years ago) link
Perhaps it's because some petulant little shit has been playing this nonstop without headphones over and over for a half hour but I hate this song so much
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Monday, 16 November 2015 10:39 (eight years ago) link
I don't like it either, it's the voice that makes it annoying imo, also production is grating on my ears
― niels, Monday, 16 November 2015 10:48 (eight years ago) link
Yeah I think it's poor - a travesty that it was a much bigger hit than Shakira's 'Empire', which is doing a similar thing far better imo.
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Monday, 16 November 2015 10:52 (eight years ago) link
damn "alive" is my shit, what a banger
― J0rdan S., Friday, 8 January 2016 02:34 (eight years ago) link
"We are Born" is her last classic album and her cover of "Oh Father" rules
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Sunday, 20 August 2017 02:29 (six years ago) link
This song is still the absolute best
― albvivertine, Thursday, 24 May 2018 10:28 (five years ago) link
By which I mean it's the absolute best
― albvivertine, Thursday, 24 May 2018 10:29 (five years ago) link
Sia is rather underrated on this board. Or she's rather overrated in my heart. At her best she's amazing and I'm a bit tired of her not getting the credit she deserves from "pop fans".
― albvivertine, Thursday, 24 May 2018 10:43 (five years ago) link
She’s definitely underrated here. I’ve said before her last classic record is we are born; tour was incredible, she wasn’t wearing the masks at this point and she did an encore for titanium, stating it was the reason people came to the show.
1000 forms was her last decent record but her victim to victor shit gets old when it’s in every song
― don piano (Ross), Thursday, 24 May 2018 14:02 (five years ago) link