Sia

"This Is Acting"

Rating: 3 stars (out of five)

There's an added measure of insult that Rihanna's clunky, surprise release of her new "Anti" would upstage the planned same-week release of Sia's new "This Is Acting." The Sia album features a song the Australian performer had written for Rihanna, though it was ultimately rejected.

In fact, that's the theme of "This Is Acting" overall: It features Sia singing songs she had written for other performers, though the songs ultimately weren't used.

That explains why Sia sounds like a composite of other artists here. If the dancehall-lilting, Saturday-night-let's-party "Cheap Thrills" doesn't really fit Sia, it's because it was intended for Rihanna; and if the morose "Space Between" feels wrong, it's because it was written for Lana Del Rey. Also, if Sia sounds like she's aping Adele in the heady drama of "Alive," it's because she wrote that song with Adele and for Adele. Similarly, the clomping, albeit clever, "Reaper" is a collaboration with Kanye West.

So if "This Is Acting" sounds more generic than Sia's quirky 2014 release, "1000 Forms of Fear," it's because she's not quite herself here.

Sia the songwriter will ultimately be more lucrative than Sia the singer: She's as dependable a hired gun as Linda Perry and Diane Warren were before her, which is to say overemotional and manipulative.

Still, Sia isn't simply going through the motions on "This Is Acting." Her trademark fitful enunciation and penchant for yowling flavor the release, and it's hard to argue with these trumped-up hooks. The grand mission statement of "Bird Set Free," for example, is a self-possessed declaration – "I sing for love, I sing for me." And in a back-to-back tour de force, Sia issues stadium-worthy anthems, first with the militaristic victory dance "Move Your Body" and then with the empowering blast of "Unstoppable."

Despite some groan-worthy clichés that might explain why these songs were rejected, Sia gives them life, and all of the songs sound more than serviceable, if not especially great.