album reviewed: dido plays it safe...again..

ARTIST: Dido
ALBUM: Safe Trip Home
RATING: OOO
hazim and the new asymptotes
hey. hazim here...again. I am a self confessed Dido fan who loved and loved and loved her last album Life For Rent and No Angel and I must admit for five years, the wait for her third major release ( her first album Odds and Ends) doesn't count. It was a mixtape thingy) has been long and grueling
WHAT'S GOOD: What separated Dido from her soft-voiced counterparts (namely Sarah McLachlan, Jem, KT Tunstall) was the backdrop her voice always snuggled up against her older brother's electronic production. Here, that electronic is almost absent. Rollo's had to make way for ambient producer Brian Eno with a multitude of guests ranging from a Fleetwood Mac member to Citizen Cope ("Burnin Love is the song and he apears towards the last half of it with his signature sit-on-the-couch-and-sing delivery). The ambiance does her flat voice good, especially when she's sprouting personal lines that could have been taken right out of her diary. The very personal "Grafton Street" and "The Day Before The Day" deal with the death of her father. "Don't Believe In Love" deals with her fear f intimacy And so on. The Bridget Jones Diary themes passing by like familiar dreams. This is her most personal work and it's more gratifying for it.
WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD: This album, despite the stunning production value courtesy of Brian Eno can only go so far. As personal as the lyrics are, you kind of wish she'd let some of that gut wrenching emotion into her whispery soft voice. Just imagine how incredible it'd sund. True, her voice is limited as heard on several songs where she tries to pull off a falsetto. But the deadpan Sheryl Crow delivery is a bit disappointing. Especially when there's no electronica or bleeps and buzzes to hide the flaw. This album has no killer sngle and Dido doesn't seem to mind (although her label is trying everything in their power to make it a success a la Life For Rent with their promotional stints with the I Phone and Nectar and 11 short films being filmed and lah blah blah, this album still comes in second on the charts behind a rerelease of Leona Lewis's debut on the charts). If this hits a million, I'll buy another physical copy of Safe Trip Home.
SOOOO0....: Dido does the same thing that she's known for. She's the queen of easy listening. Like Sade was back in her prime. But even Sade took a few creative leaps here and there. This isn't a bad album. The emotional and production layers peel away with repeated listens but on the surface, it's just another Dido affair. And naming it SAFE Trip Home doesn't help either. Neither does putting a tiny laughable astronaut on the cover. But I'm a Dido fan through and through and hopefully, this presents a new possible direction for her in the future.
THERE'S THIS SONG I LIKE: "Grafton Street" "The Day Before The Day" "Let's Do The Things We Normally Do"
ARTIST WEBSITE: Dido