Soon We’ll Be Found

Sia

I must have first heard Titanium when the rest of the world did, as it played incessantly on the radio, and in restaurants and clubs in 2011. The superhit song is written by Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler, who supplied DJ David Guetta with demo vocals that he eventually used in the track without telling her. Sia has admitted that she was initially upset about it, because electronic dance music was not “my kind of music”. She was an indie artist who had decided to focus on her songwriting around the time Titanium catapulted her to international fame.

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But Titanium is not the song I want to recommend for New Year’s Day listening.

It took me a few years to discover the rest of Sia’s repertoire. Intrigued by her versatile voice and eccentric ways (in 2013, the introverted singer-songwriter famously wore a paper bag to conceal her face on the cover of Billboard magazine, and she wears a blonde wig to mask her face at public appearances), I looked for her other work.

Among other things, I found a gem of an album called Some People Have Real Problems (2008). I listened to the 10th track, Soon We’ll Be Found, on repeat for at least a week after that. She has had other popular hits since – Chandelier, Elastic Heart and Cheap Thrills among a few – but this album was from an earlier time, and exhibits a very different side of Sia.

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I love everything about Soon We’ll Be Found – Sia’s powerful vocals, its lyrics, its melody, its quiet cajoling, and even its quirky video. It was recorded before the singer became insanely famous and retreated behind props, so her face is visible. She also expresses the lyrics in American Sign Language.

Its lyrics offer a promise that I’m latching on to for the new year.

“Well it’s been rough but we’ll be just fine
Work it out yeah we’ll survive
You mustn’t let a few bad times dictate
So come along, it won’t be long
Till we return happy
…Turn around I know we’re lost
but soon we’ll be found.”