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DVDfever.co.uk – Dido: Safe trip Home CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
Sony/BMG Music
- Released: November 2008
- Rating: 4/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
Reflective slumber ouch.
When you wish someone a safe trip home it implies they been somewhere different to their usual surroundings – a change of place or just surroundings, like spaceman Bruce Candless 11 on the CD cover.
Much like Enya, Dido can hardly be considered a progressive artist.
After five years (yep its been that long) Didos Safe Trip Home isnt exactly a revelation.
When youve got multimillion sales (around 10 million) and lotsa wads in the bank, artists get complacent, and thats what Dido Armstrongs done.
Musically, she also fails to push the boundaries away from her comfort zone, which might be hindered by contributions by ex-Roxy Music keyboardist Brian Eno and Mick Fleetwood. Latterly Enos music has been maudling to say the least, so here hes failed to bring any new ideas: basically it hasnt got any sparkle.
As with previous two albums its very listenable but nothing really stands out : theres no White Flag or Thank You.
Surprisingly enough, it starts with lo-fi funky Dont Believe In Love the sort of coffee table stuff we expect, like her emotionless and detached vocals, that were apparently sung in the producers tiny broom cupboard.
And this seems to be a clue to her possible inner turmoil of sorts, because theres an underlying theme of loss, grief, mainly uncertainty, underpinning her material. Just for once youd think shed lighten up, just a bit, because Quiet Times (shes had 5 years to work on this remember) typifies her one-dimensional approach, with segued Never Want To Say Its Love equally downcast.
Skipping drab Grafton Street (though the mid-section eastern / Celtic flavoured segment is interesting) , we get to the (what can be deduced as autobiographical) It Comes And It Goes as she declares : Some days I want love , some days I dont / Sometimes I can feel it, then suddenly its goes.
So far things havent been too exciting we are talking Dido and when Us 2 Little Gods arrives, a perky little shuffle, its very welcome and over due. If theres anything that stands out, just, Lets Do shimmers gloriously while our Ms. D shows some hint of sweetness. After that is all goes pear-shaped to its end.
Of the three so far, Life For Rent is by far the best.
File under: Oh dear. Running out of ideas ?
Weblink:didomusic.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Dont Believe In Love
2. Quiet Times
3. Never Want To Say Its Love
4. Grafton Street
5. It Comes And Goes
6. Look No Further
7. Us 2 Little Gods
8. The Day Before The Day
9. Lets Do The Things We Normally Do
10. Burnin Love (with Citizen Cope)
11. Northern SkiesView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.