The second of Sia’s solo albums, Healing Is Difficult combines R&B (with a neo-soul slant), jazz and pop. As the title suggests, this CD follows one of the most painful periods in Sia’s young adult life.
Shortly before her arrival in London to join her boyfriend (they were planning to backpack across Europe), Sia decided to make a side trip to Thailand because a stripper told her about a colonic irrigation she could have done. (I’m not making this up.) She called her boyfriend to see if he’d mind if she delayed her arrival for a week (though it would mean missing his birthday). He said it wasn’t a problem. Unfortunately, on his birthday, he got so drunk he stepped into the street and was struck by a taxi and instantly killed.
Sia made the trip to London anyway, where she spent the next several months grieving by drinking and using drugs in a three-bedroom apartment she shared with thirteen of her boyfriend’s friends. After much intensive therapy following that experience, she channeled her train wreck of a life into beautiful, emotion-filled, autobiographical songs. Several of those songs can be found on this CD as well as Colour the Small One.
Though Healing Is Difficult is my least favorite of Sia’s CDs, it’s still worthy of high praise because she’s just that good.
Fear
Little Man
Taken for Granted
Blow It All Away
