Lady Croissant


 * "Cause I am your lady and you are my man" — Jennifer Rush

Lady Croissant is the first live album by Sia, released on 3 April 2007.

Composition
Just over forty minutes in length, Lady Croissant contains nine "slow-to-mid-tempo" compositions. The album includes one previously unreleased studio recording called "Pictures", co-written by Dan Carey, along with eight live tracks recorded during her 17 April 2006 performance at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. "Destiny" and "Distractions" each appeared on Zero 7's 2001 album Simple Things, which featured vocals by Sia. Both songs were co-written by Sia and members of Zero 7; "Destiny" was also co-written by Sophie Barker, another vocal contributor to Simple Things. "Blow It All Away" originally appeared on Sia's 2002 studio album Healing Is Difficult, and "Don't Bring Me Down", "Numb" and "Breathe Me" were each released on her 2004 album Colour the Small One. "Lentil" and the cover version of Ray Davies' song "I Go to Sleep", made popular by both Cher and the Pretenders, would later appear on Some People Have Real Problems (2008). The album was produced by Carey, mixed by Jon Lemon and Taz Mattar at Sarm Studios in London and mastered by Emily Lazar and Sarah Register at The Lodge in New York City.

Reception
Lady Croissant received a mixed critical reception. AllMusic's Marisa Brown called Sia's vocal performance "rich and passionate" and compared it to Nelly Furtado and Morley. Brown stated the band was "tight and lush" and that the music was "very modern, warm and melodic and cleanly intricate". In his review for BBC Music, Paul Sullivan wrote that the album successfully displayed Sia's vocal capabilities and versatility. However, he noted the minimal audience participation and felt that this prevented the album from capturing a "live" experience. For Sullivan, highlights included "Don't Bring Me Down", "Destiny", and "Lentil", which he believed were "executed with an appealing mixture of frankness and fluidity". Mark Perlaki of Gigwise.com awarded the album four out of five stars and opined that the album "portrays an artist who's star is in the ascendant, whose voice is unrivaled in style and expression, an artist on the brink of deserved and assured greater recognition". The Selby Times ' review called the collection "mesmerising" and a good indicator of Sia's future work. One reviewer for WERS called the album "breathtaking" and wrote positively of Sia's vocals and the instrumentation. Like Sullivan, the reviewer warned that listeners expecting a traditional live album with "raw cuts and heavy improvisation" might be disappointed.

Trivia

 * The title "Lady Croissant" is a reference to the name Sia got when they made up alter egos for everyone in her band: "Vagina Croissant".