Dido - Safe Trip Home
Dido is one of those singers who you could just listen to all day; with her soulful voice that seems to just float out with no effort at all. Needless to say I was quite excited to hear what her latest album, Safe Trip Home, had to offer following her incredible previous offerings, No Angel in 1999 and Life For Rent in 2003.
The opening song, Don‘t Believe In Love isn’t really very upbeat, although to be honest I can’t really remember Dido being particularly upbeat in the first place. The song shows off her unique voice with minimal backing instruments except the odd bass line and drum beat, with the whole thing picking up for the chorus.
Quiet Times has a bit more life in it, and reminds me of days skipping hand in hand through fields in summertime, gay I know, but still happy,! Then we have Never Want To Say It‘s Love which, with the state of life at the moment, is quite fitting as it’s quite terrifying to admit that you love someone, as it brings so much dependency and pressure…
“I never want to say it’s love…. But it’s really what I’m thinking of.†Come on Dido, just come out and say it, it’s better to get it off your chest after all right? Bah, the song itself is still quite slow and easy-going, and it doesn’t really inspire you to go and grab that guy and plant a smacker on his lips and confess your undying love.
I’m hoping that the record will get better (or just more upbeat) with time and Grafton Street delivers that little glimmer of excitement that I need. Fair enough, it really doesn’t make you want to get up and dance around in your PJ’s, but the chorus is possibly one of the nicest she’s sung since Isobel. What I wouldn’t give to be able to belt out a tune like this little lady… and to have her looks too!
It Comes And Goes is the most lively song so far and takes me back to the good old Dido days form No Angel,. The lyrics are quite poignant too and accepts the fact that people (in particular, myself) can want something one day and then desire something completely different the next.
Look No Further however, is another slow and lifeless song… I know she has a great voice, so please don’t have a go at me for that, but personally, unless you want to sit at home and cry / reflect on life / commit suicide / possibly make love… not too sure on that one though.
Us 2 Little Gods is a feeble attempt at trying to get ‘down with the kids’ by using 2 instead of two… well done love. The song itself sounds pretty southern American inspired, like the kind of music you’d find on Ghost Dances.
Once again, The Day Before The Day fails to be very inspiring and I find myself thinking that all the songs are blending into one long whiney ballad. Granted, the arrangement really shows how incredible singer she is as the lack of backing music means all we really enjoy are her words.
As The Day Before The Day progresses, I must admit that it does really grow on me as it is a truly beautiful song, however, it would have made far more sense to put just one or two really great slow songs on the album and then more songs like Let‘s Do The Things We Normally Do Which, at long last, delivers an upbeat song that really gets my feet tapping.
That high doesn’t last for long really as Burnin‘ Love (which isn’t as good as Leona’s Bleeding Love before you start making comparisons) brings us bad down to the funeral music with it’s heavy pace that makes you feel like every muscle in your body is made of lead but you have a wild tiger chasing after you and you just can’t escape… not fun. Plus it sounds like a Stereophonics song… and no one can do Kelly Jones justice.
The closer, Northern Skies is actually an incredible song, it’s just a shame it’s stuck right at the end; if I had heard this song at the beginning, it might have changed my opinion completely. Okay, it is eight minutes long, which seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment with William Control’s album Hate Culture (see the review here) doing the same - except with some kind of murder at the end.
So I concede that my love for this song does make me look like a hypocrite as she drags out six paragraphs for almost 10 minutes, but I guess that’s the way it goes… add a lovely beat and a bit of humming and there you have it; cracking track.
Rating: 2/5
Skip To: It Comes And Goes
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison