New Albums: Sia; Savages; Elton John; Tortoise Ratings: Excellent , Good , Fair , Poor

This Is Acting

RCA (**)

nolead ends Sia Furler is a singular, fame-averse Australian pop star in her own right, scoring a massive hit under her own name with 2014's "Chandelier," and nearly always appearing in public with a huge blond wig hiding her face. But Sia is also one of the world's most successful "topline" songwriters - one of the A-list melodists and singers who team with big-name beat-making producers to serve pop superstars like Rihanna and Beyonce. Sia wrote "Diamonds" for the former and "Pretty Hurts" for the latter, and This Is Acting consists entirely of her own versions of songs tailor-made for - but rejected by - marquee artists.

The results make for an amusing game of which-song-was- written-for-whom that holds interest for a while. Yes, the belted-out ballad "Alive" was meant for Adele's 25, and it is one track whose personal interpretation has a desperate edge that its intended would likely have steered away from. And, sure, you can easily imagine Shakira shaking her booty to the percolating "Move Your Body" or Beyoncé declaring herself "Unstoppable." But on the whole, This Is Acting is a willfully generic exercise. It's unclear whether Sia is purposefully making soaringly banal pop songs like "Broken Glass" and "Space Between" to implicitly critique the way postmodern pop is assembled (as expertly detailed in John Seabrook's 2015 book, The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory). But without the presence of the outsize personalities who usually sell her songs, This Is Acting comes across as a cool, uninvolving, and not-very-dramatic exercise.

- Dan DeLuca

nolead begins Savages
nolead ends nolead begins Adore Life
nolead ends nolead begins Matador (***1/2)

nolead ends "This is what you get when you mess with love," vocalist Jehnny Beth repeats, rapidly, on "T.I.W.Y.G." from Savages' Adore Life. It's an album of messy love songs more concerned with the pains of desperation than the joys of fulfillment. Even when she claims "I adore life" on the ominous, gothic title track, Beth sounds like she's trying to convince herself.

The album equals the raw power of 2013's Silence Yourself, the London quartet's acclaimed debut, but yokes it to tighter song structures and stronger choruses. There's a new, angular quality to Gemma Thompson's guitars on songs like "Evil" and "When in Love," and like Sleater-Kinney's The Woods or PJ Harvey's Rid of Me, Adore Life explores the boundary of chaos and control. "I need something new in my ears," Beth sings, railing against boredom. Savages provides something exciting for our ears with Adore Life.

- Steve Klinge

Savages performs at 8 p.m. March 31 at Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St. Tickets: $20. Information: 215-232-2100 or www.utphilly.com.

nolead begins Elton John
nolead ends nolead begins Wonderful Crazy Night
nolead ends nolead begins Island (**)

nolead ends For his 33rd studio album, Elton John got the old gang together, put them in a room with moodily atmospheric producer T Bone Burnett, and told them to play faster and happier than the pianist/singer did on 2013's slow, dark The Diving Board. Lyricist Bernie Taupin, with whom John has worked for nearly 50 years, harmonizing drummer and guitarist Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone, longtime percussionist Ray Cooper - they're tough to beat when the sound and vision are just right. There are dozens of '70s smashes that prove that theorem, and the new album's lustrous ballads and cheerily pensive moments (e.g. "A Good Heart," the gruffly sung "Blue Wonderful") rank high among John/Taupin classics.

The rest of the quick-stepping album? Not so much. If John's not busy with what sounds like an Elvis imitation on the rolling, repetitive title track, he's aping pal Billy Joel in a Southern pique (or is this a Burnett holdover from his time overseeing True Detective?) through the plucked-banjo grunge of "Claw Hammer." Corny lyrics mar that last track, and slickly produced, weird jangly guitars take down "Guilty Pleasure." When John is great, he's gorgeous. When he's not, he's tragic. This is decent, bordering on tragedy.

- A.D. Amorosi

nolead begins Tortoise
nolead ends nolead begins The Catastrophist
nolead ends nolead begins (Thrill Jockey ***)

nolead ends Tortoise's 1996 album, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, helped define "post-rock," but by now, the label has become so malleable it's almost meaningless. The Catastrophist is the Chicago band's seventh studio album and their first in seven years; to call it post-rock means it sounds like Tortoise, which also means it is exploratory and unpredictable.

It contains a weird, warped cover of David Essex's 1972 hit, "Rock On," and a gentle ballad, "Yonder Blue," with vocals from Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley. The rest of the tracks, most of which hover around four minutes, are instrumentals, ranging from the assertive "Shake Hands With Danger" to the almost funky "Hot Coffee" and the shimmery, then ominous "At Odds With Logic." The Catastrophist is a heady mix of contemplative drones and complex rhythms, searing guitars and buzzing keyboards, structured melodies and shape-shifting explorations that strives for breadth rather than cohesion.

- Steve Klinge
Tortoise perform at 9 p.m. March 18 at Underground Arts,

1200 Callowhill St. Tickets: $16. Information: www.undergroundarts.org.