Colour the Small One

Colour the Small One
Studio album by Sia
Released 19 January 2004
13 April 2004
10 January 2006
Recorded

Heliocentric Studios

Rye, England
Label Universal International, Go Beat, Astralwerks
Producer Jimmy Hogarth
Sia chronology
Healing Is Difficult
(2001)
Colour The Small One
(2004)
Lady Croissant - Live LP
(2007)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Pitchfork Media (7.3/10)[1]
Rolling Stone [2]
Slant Magazine [3]
Metacritic (77/100)[4]

Colour the Small One is a 2004 album by Australian singer Sia. It is her third solo studio album.

It was re-released 10 January 2006 in the United States, after the track "Breathe Me" became popular on alternative radio, following its feature as the closing song in the series finale of the HBO drama Six Feet Under.[5]

Contents

Background and recording

The song "The Bully" is co-written by American musician Beck. [6] Two other songs from the Colour the Small One sessions were co-written with Beck but never surfaced. The song "Natale's Song" features backing vocals from British singer Sophie Barker who had previously worked with Sia on the Zero 7 single Destiny.[7] British singer Yvonne John Lewis features on the song "The Church of What's Happening Now" as backing-vocalist. [7] Six tracks on the album had been co-written with her bass guitarist, Samuel Dixon.[8]

Promotion

In the UK, the proper first single "Breathe Me" (second release after "Don't Bring Me Down") reached a respectable #71 on the charts in May 2004, whilst the third single "Where I Belong" failed to make any impact. The fourth and final single "Numb" went largely unnoticed. When it was released in 2004, "Breathe Me" was the first single across most of the world, while "Don't Bring Me Down" was the second.

In promotion of the album, Go Beat produced a making-of video which can be found on YouTube.[1][2] Music videos were shot for the songs "Breathe Me" and "Sunday" while an animation was made for the song "Numb". A music video was later shot for "Don't Bring Me Down" but featured the live version featured on the live album Lady Croissant instead.

Due to a re-surfacing of popularity with "Breathe Me" in the United States, it was re-released in the U.S. "Breathe Me" gained popularity on alternative rock and alternative adult radio stations in early and mid-spring. In 2007, "Breathe Me" was used in television commercials for Cooper University Hospital of South New Jersey, USA. In April 2008, "Breathe Me" was featured on the German soap opera, Verbotene Liebe when gay supercouple Christian Mann and Oliver Sabel embraced as lovers for the first time on German television. Also, in October 2008, whilst at the Tokyo Game Show Ubisoft revealed a trailer for their upcoming video-game Prince of Persia which used the track "Breathe Me". Many of the commercials on NBC for the 2008 Summer Olympics featured clips of "Breathe Me" and the song was also used for Coca-Cola commercials during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

"Numb" was featured on an episode of Nip/Tuck (Season 3, Episode #33 "Rhea Reynolds"), played at the close of the episode. It is also regularly used in the British TV series Holby City and has been played in the popular British soap Hollyoaks several times. It has also been used in an episode of The Hills.

Track listing

International Version
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Rewrite"   Samuel Dixon, Sia Furler 4:45
2. "Sunday"   Dixon, Furler 4:17
3. "Breathe Me"   Dan Carey, Furler 4:34
4. "The Bully"   Beck, Furler, Jimmy Hogarth 3:51
5. "Sweet Potato"   Cormack, Furler, Hogarth 4:00
6. "Don't Bring Me Down"   Furler, MacKichan 4:25
7. "Natale's Song"   Dixon, Furler 2:32
8. "Butterflies"   Cormack, Furler, Hogarth 3:26
9. "Moon"   Dixon, Furler, Hogarth 5:02
10. "The Church of What's Happening Now"   Dixon, Furler 4:27
11. "Numb"   Furler, Howard, McMillan 4:40
12. "Where I Belong"   Dixon, Furler 5:45

Personnel

Credits adapted from here for track 1 to 12. From here for tracks 13 to 16 (credits for tracks 13 and 14 are mistakenly reported as the credits for the tracks 12 and 13 respectively).

Design and photography

Production

Songwriting

Musicians

Charts

Chart (2006) Peak
position
Billboard Top Heatseekers (U.S.)[9] 14

References

  1. ^ Pitchfork Media review
  2. ^ Rolling Stone review
  3. ^ Slant Magazine review
  4. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/music/colour-the-small-one
  5. ^ "Everyone's Waiting". Alan Ball (writer & director). Six Feet Under. HBO. 2005-08-21. No. 12, season 5.
  6. ^ Pitchfork Media, Pitchfork: Album Reviews.
  7. ^ a b Discogs.com,Sophie Barker and Yvonne John Lewis collaborations.
  8. ^ au.news.yahoo.com, collaboration with Samuel Dixon.
  9. ^ Top Heatseekers, Colour the Small One on charts.