1 April 2016
Sia’s public standing doesn’t seem to have recovered from the controversial depiction of autism in Music, the 2021 movie she co-wrote, co-produced and directed. Matters weren’t helped by Sia’s initial response to such criticism: effing and jeffing at disgruntled autistic people on her socials. Her 2017 Christmas single ‘Snowman’ returns to the charts every year, perhaps from being in situ on festive streaming playlists, but none of the tracks from Sia’s post-Music 2024 album cracked the UK or US top fifty, let alone the Irish top thirty. Given her ’10s ubiquity on ‘Titanium’, ‘Wild Ones’ and ‘Cheap Thrills’, that’s a notable fall in stature.
Back in 2016, ‘Cheap Thrills’ just seemed to rub me up the wrong way. “I don’t need dollar bills to have fun tonight” belongs to a naff, decrepit trope you tire to hear from celebrity VIP pop stars who waft through their social life from exclusive club to invite-only event without having to put their hand in their pocket. Aside from imagining no possessions, Sia jumps on the mid-’10s dancehall-borrowing bandwagon with an actual Caribbean act, Sean Paul, in tow to lend cred, though her pronunciation of “dancefloor” in the pre-chorus veers close to borrowing an accent too. Clichéd sound, clichéd sentiment, clichéd cultural appropriation: ‘Cheap Thrills’ wasn’t doing much different to many other mid-’10s chart-toppers, but at this remove you’re left with the cheapness.
