Miss Dido Armstrong was the big thing at the turn of the century, after appearing on Eminem’s “Stan” with a sample of her soon to be massive hit “Thank You”, Dido was set to become a big star.
The album which I am now about to review, “No Angel” remained at the album chart top spot for a ludicrous number of weeks… this review aims to show you why.
The album I have contains the bonus track“Take My Hand” which does not appear on all copies... it also comes complete with the videos to two of her songs.
So stay here with me for my review of each track one by one, the first track being… Here With Me!
The track begins a droning set of synths, and a booming drum peals echoing off into the background. The singing begins very quickly, eerily echoing over the background bleeping and synth strings. Single piano arpeggios herald the start of the pre-chorus, to be then joined with a pleasant sounding acoustic guitar and a proper rhythmical drumbeat for the chorus itself.
At the end of the chorus, the percussive element takes over, a very heavy crunchy beat with continued synthy beeps and sounds in the midst of the her vocals. A beautiful string section joins a second chorus, which is very pleasing to the ears. Her voice is layered a number of times in the chorus to give a fuller sound.
Each time a chorus appears all the timbre dies off very suddenly, to build up once again. The end of the song comes very unexpected in this case, the beat and singing dropping off instantly to give way to the previously heard piano arpeggios… 4 and a quarter minutes in all, a wonderful start to the album.
The next track is one of my favourites, “Hunter” is a very sombre sounding tune for the most part, although the start… lyrics from the first second, accompanied by the strumming of an acoustic would not suggest this from the outset.
Mean sounding cellos join the music after the first verse, along with a quiet hissy hi-hat beat. The chorus is joined by synthesised aaaaaahing, quite sinister sounding in my opinion.
“For this queen you think you own wants to be a hunter again”
Yes, it’s a song about splitting up, probably why it sounds so mean =P
The later choruses use some beautiful chorals and harmonies, many people believe Dido has an awful voice, I am not inclined to agree.. she holds a note very well, and this song proves this point perfectly.
Much of the rest of the song is repeating what has already been heard, accompanied by a very twangy guitar, all the timbre rolls on to the end with the final section being the aaahing. A truly great track!
The next track is “Don’t Think Of Me”, another little ditty about love problems. The song is based around two chords to begin, until the chorus… which is a heavily stringed, heavy beat ridden affair, I am not particularly fond of the singing on the chorus, it sounds too strained.
Throughout the song the tune is followed incessantly by a simple 1-2 bass which really adds interest to the track, when listening to music I always have the bass put up somewhat. The end of the track goes on for a relatively long time, with incomprehensible voices in the background… finishing at the 4:30 mark.
A good song, but not the best by any means.
“My Lover’s Gone” is the next track, more songs about romantic woes… on hearing the track her story is pretty self-explanatory. I’m not a big fan of this track… lots of swirly bassy synths accompany a very lonely sounding echoed Dido. Occasional acoustic guitar accentuates the ends of the song lines.
The next verse brings in the guitar fully, pleasant sounding arpeggios accompany her voice, whilst a beat comprising of various metallic percussion plods along with the track.
At the two minute mark, a rising synth indicates the start of a new beat, filtered snare breakbeats, and an understated Dire Straits-esque guitar solo add some interest to the song.
The first verse of the song is then repeated, with additional layers of vocals. The beat and guitar running on to the end of the track, which like all her tracks, is over 4 minutes long.
This next track is lovely, “All You Want” and once again she’s moaning about not having her guy beside her.. but at least this time she’s being pleasant about it.
The first line of the track is a bit creepy.. “I’d like to watch you sleep at night, to hear you breathe... by my side” I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the sound of that.
Once again the acoustic guitar is the favoured form of music… then accompanied by a heavy bass, which actually sounds really nice!
The chorus is wonderful, use of the layered vocals once again hides the fact that Dido’s voice finds it quite hard to go loud, she can hold a note beautifully, but she doesn’t throw it too well. A cello bass which sounds like it has being snatched directly from Rob D’s dustbin whilst he made “Clubbed To Death” plays in the background… very nice.
The second chorus is much the same, but is accompanied by an electric guitar with plenty of treble, yet succeeds in sounding very nice… somehow.
A really beautiful song, one of my favourites.
Next track is the biggie, the one that made her famous. “Thank You” is helped by the fact all the programming has been done by her brother Rollo, one half of the DJ duo Rollo and Sister Bliss… big names in the dance music business.
The beat is most curious, a quiet hooting accompanies congas and a single snare. The acoustic guitar once again makes its omnipresence, 3 chords played in a way I can’t quite work out.
The chorus contains some lovely ooohing and aaahing backing vocals, which compliment Dido’s vocals beautifully. Pianos and clapping join the fray afterwards…
A flute solo, perhaps panpipes is played.. which is quite nice… a happy tune, for happy people.. enjoyable to say the least.
This next track, “Honestly O.K” is a bit odd.
Sliced harmonicas and weird screeching synths make up the intro. Although it has to be said, the heavy kickdrums provided a very nice beat, I’m not a fan of the harmonica.
All this is scrapped when she begins singing, once again very solitary vocals… all about not being with a man again! ENOUGH OF LONELINESS!
I quite like the bass on this track, syncopated against the rest of the track it adds complexity to the track, and sounds impressive!
3 minutes sees some soft pads following her vocals’ every move, the sinister edge continues throughout. I’m not a great fan of this track, but it’s better than...
..."Slide”. I’m not a fan of this track. Acoustic guitars once again, 2 note basslines once again, and congas… once again. The singing isn’t too great either.. they don’t go with the chords very well.
Especially in the pre-chorus its pretty awful, and she hits high notes that are completely unnecessary… when she screeches “Don’t Slide” and is joined by another vocal, it makes me wish I could gouge out my ears with an ice-cream scoop.
The rest of the track does not change much from this formula, until the 3:30 mark, she actually makes it sound good, she yells at you over a chorus of backing vocals, yet unfortunately this gives way to the painful chorus once again, probably just to achieve her 4 minute minimum target she appears to have set herself. One to miss.
“Isobel” is an intriguing track. A drumroll beat and quiet electric guitar arpeggios join crashing cymbals. The verse is sung in an understated voice, quiet and easy on the ears. Resounding piano chords and additional percussion join the chorus.
The tune doesn’t vary from this in the other verses, which is fine, because it is nice.
The title track to the album is next on the playlist. A sampled “yeah right” starts the track, with none other than chords on an ACOUSTIC GUITAR! These are joined by piano chords, and a beat with intriguing vinyl feedback.
The track moves along at a walking pace, with the interesting skipbeat bouncing along.
The track rebels against convention, and two verses are sung before the initial chorus. Yet when it does finally get sung, its hardly very choral anyway, merely the same sort of tune, yet with backing singers.
I warn you the final note of the chorus hurts your ears… =P
The bit between the two choruses is curious in its structure, each bar contains a piano riff that performs a musical equivalent of a glottal stop and leaves your ears feeling a little odd.
Dido fails in her 4 minute marathons here, given that her track falls a mere 8 seconds short.
“My Life” is the final track on the standard album, and is a pleasant one at that. A thumpy waltzy beat plays for a few bars, until Dido begins singing, accompanied by a low tuned piano. It’s a very a quiet track, the chorus being accompanied only by a few “aaaah” backing vocals. A little organ trickle begins the start of the next verse, which is now followed by some very low strings, which sound really nice.
The next chorus is joined by an organ and louder backing vocals… yet still sound very simple. Only three minutes in length however. A truly pleasant song, yet it is not my favourite. This accolade belongs to..
“Take My Hand”, the bonus track upon the album. This track is produced by both Rollo AND Sister Bliss, and it truly shows too. The track is a lot more upbeat than any others on the album, and I LOVE it.
The intro is a quiet strings affair, with little guitar interludes. 30 seconds brings the pre-chorus, acoustic guitar chords and a feedback synth play here.
You can feel the track about to build up to something, and it does. One minute mark, and the track is accompanied by a highly unDidoish dance beat, heavy 404 bass and a simple hi-hat beat begin, progressively building up with guitar riffles and reversed cymbals.
The chords brighten up somewhat, ready for the chorus. Her voice is joined by... her own, on a slightly different note! The chorus really takes off here, beautiful strings, vocal-following pianos and heavy bass play together with the words to create a truly gorgeous sound.
At 3 minutes, the end of the chorus is followed by cellos echoing off into the background. The beat continues, followed by clumsy Safri Duo-like percussive fun. The strings build up very loudly, and drop off suddenly for the next verse.
The end of this verse is scarily reminiscent that of anything by U2… sounding quite a lot like “Where The Streets Have No Name”, which is no bad thing, considering that is my favourite U2 song ever. Guitar riffles, piano and echoey synths play, her vocals are said in single sentences, and echoed away… 5 minutes and the whole caboodle (I just said caboodle….) comes in force: pianos, 404, wonderful strings, drums, singing, backing singing.. all thrown at you in one great big end of album finale, it dies off, only to come back to finish, ending on a quiet piano solo! Six and a half minutes of highly enjoyable music, the best track on the album.
So here we are, 52 minutes later. If you can’t see why this album was so successful, there is something wrong with your ears.
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out
Dido was five when she stole her first recorder. This didn t lead to prison but rather to her entrance one year later into the Guildhall School of Mus...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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