Sia Furler is the forty-year-old Australian woman credited for writing the hits of artist like Katy Perry, Beyonce, Adele, and Rihanna. Much has been written in recent months about her transition from highly-sought-after pop songwriter to hugely successful pop singer (her 2014 release,1000 Forms of Fear, has gone platinum in 4 countries). The popular narrative about Furler is a feel good one: background player finally takes the lead and becomes star. In a way, that narrative feels a lot like the songs from Sia’s seventh studio album This is Acting: cheesy, trite, yet often overwhelmingly irresistible.

The LP is comprised of twelve songs that Furler originally wrote or co-wrote for other artists. “Alive,” an Adele-reject and the album’s lead single opens with “I grew up in a thunder storm / I grew up overnight” and triumphantly crashes into a chorus of “I’m still breathing, I’m still breathing / I’m still breathing, I’m still breathing / I’m alive / I’m alive / I’m alive/ I’m alive.” Kitsch little gems like this are spread uniformly among the album’s monumental drum kicks and roaring choruses. “House On Fire” was originally intended for Rihanna, and though its tale of deliciously destructive romance has RiRi written all over it, when sung in Furler’s fluttering, mid range rasp, it has a particularly tragic and affecting quality. “Reaper,” an immediate foot-tapper with an attractive bass-line as the requisite Sia drums is a story of hitting rock-bottom but managing to fight one’s way back, escaping death’s grasp — “Oh no baby, no baby, not today.” Only a few times, Sia veers too far into well-tred pop territory as in the dance pop jam “Move Your Body” (a song so obviously written for Shakira, I thought I had clicked on one of my sister’s “Party” playlists by accident). But outside of that, Sia sticks to feel-good jams about overcoming adversity or the tragic and inevitable lure of love.

In a December interview with Rolling Stone, Furler told Brittany Spanos, “It really seems the general public responds to songs about salvation or overcoming something… So yeah, I think my skill is more upbeat curating.” Though, “upbeat curating” sounds like something a man in clear-framed glasses and an emerald turtleneck would mutter to himself during a tour of The Whitney, it’s a shockingly accurate description Furler’s new album.

In that same Rolling Stone interview, Furler told Spanos quite frankly, “I think my visual work is art and my music is definitely commercial.” In an era where there is an ever-increasing discourse around “authenticity” in the music industry, it feels unusual to hear a pop performer admit something like this. Should that change the way I view her work? What does the fact that I enjoy her music say about me? I think it saysthat I, like many, am a person who enjoys a good pop song. Furler may not be an “authentic” pop singer, but if This is Acting is any indication, pop is about being willing to play the role.