"Some People Have Real Problems" (stylised on some websites as "Some People Have REAL Problems") is the fourth studio album by the Australian singer & songwriter Sia Furler and was released globally to music retailers on January 8, 2008.
Background
Sia has explained on multiple different occasions that the title's unique inspiration came from her realization of being privileged:
| “ | During recording people would come in and complain about traffic, and I'd say, 'Some people have real problems.' Like, they're waiting for a lung or they don't have a mum. I thought it would be a funny name for an album. And then I thought if I were to get rich and successful I would remember to not turn into an asshole. But I am one, so it didn't work. |
| — Sia |
In an interview with KCRW, Sia explained that the album's title was a reminder to herself to not to start complaining about her "rich-people problems."
| “ | [In the recording studio,] if anyone would complain, the running gag was 'yeah, some people have real problems.' |
| — Sia |
Reception
Some People Have Real Problems received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalisedrating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, based on 20 reviews. Reviewers such as Rolling Stone and The Guardian were highly critical of the album, each awarding the album only 2 out of 5 stars. Other reviewers, however, such as Allmusic and Slant (both of who awarded the album 4.5 out of 5 stars) and Entertainment Weekly (who gave the album an "A-") were highly positive towards the album.
Charts
Following its release, the album debuted at number 26 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling about 20,000 copies in its first week. The album was also chosen as iTunes' Top Pop Album of 2008.
| Chart | Peak |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 41 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultrapop Flanders) | 83 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultrapop Wallonia) | 52 |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 58 |
| UK Albums Billboard 200 | 26 |
| US Top Alt. Albums (Billboard) | 5 |
Certifications
The album was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association in 2011.
Trivia
- Sia has explained that the U.S edition's album cover's meaning is that the girl on the left is upset because it's raining on her, but the girl on the left has no arms or legs and she's happy living her life.
- The track "Buttons" was a hidden track on the standard edition on the album, however when the track gained popularity it was stripped from the track "Lullaby" on the Deluxe and Spotify version of the album and soon became a single with a music video being filmed alongside it.
- There were a large number of cut tracks on this record, with most of them being B-Sides. The tracks "Bring It To Me" and "Blame It On The Radio" were the B-Sides to the singles "Soon We'll Be Found" and "The Girl You Lost To Cocaine" respectively. The first track on Sia's first live album titled "Pictures" has also been considered a cut track from the album. Finally, there are three unreleased songs that were leaked in late 2016 (one being a snippet) "The Corner", "Untangle You" and "Losing You" have been thought to be cut tracks from the album, however this hasn't been officially confirmed.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Little Black Sandals" | Sia · Dan Carey | 4:14 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2. | "Lentil" | Sia · Samuel Dixon | 4:27 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3. | "Day Too Soon" | Sia · Dixon | 4:24 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4. | "You Have Been Loved" | Sia · Clifford Jones · Peter-John Vettese | 4:23 | ||||||||||||||||
| 5. | "The Girl You Lost to Cocaine" | Sia · Rob Allum · Phil Marten · Eddie Myer | 2:40 | ||||||||||||||||
| 6. | "Academia" | Sia · Carey | 3:16 | ||||||||||||||||
| 7. | "I Go to Sleep" | Ray Davies | 3:47 | ||||||||||||||||
| 8. | "Playground" | Sia · Dixon · Felix Bloxsom | 3:29 | ||||||||||||||||
| 9. | "Death By Chocolate" | Sia · Greg Kurstin | 5:03 | ||||||||||||||||
| 10. | "Soon We'll Be Found" | Sia · Rick Nowels | 4:21 | ||||||||||||||||
| 11. | "Electric Bird" | Sia · Henry Binns | 4:26 | ||||||||||||||||
| 12. | "Beautiful Calm Driving" | Sia · Dixon | 5:02 | ||||||||||||||||
| 13. | "Lullaby" (including hidden track "Buttons") | Sia · Dixon | 4:31 | ||||||||||||||||
| Total length: | 57:23 | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Some People Have Real Problems | |
|---|---|
 |
|