Sia + Har Mar Superstar

Joan Rivers and Miss Piggy do it at the makeup counter in The Muppets Take Manhattan. Crazy Betty does it in the French film Betty Blue. Smearing lipstick all over your face is generally an indicator of whacked-out loony time for the ladies (at least in the media), so when the album artwork and marketing campaign for Australian soul/pop artist Sia's new full-length, Some People Have Real Problems, featured her—in print and web ads far and wide—with colored markers all over her face and a vacant look in her eyes, it made me want to [a] put her in a straitjacket; or [b] harness her crazy jams (which prove, after listening, to be much more soulful, subdued, and substantial than the artwork indicates) and ride them all the way to the moon. Ron Jeremy look-alike Har Mar Superstar opens, upping the circus sideshow potential. AJA PECKNOLD

Listen to a sample of Sia's "Little Black Sandals."