| Dido was five when she stole her first recorder.
This didn't lead to prison, but rather to her
entrance one year later to the guildhall school
of music in london. A bit of a child prodigy, by
the time she was 10 she played piano, violin,
and the aforementioned recorder.
Her teenage years were an interesting mixture
of stealing her brother's record collection (from
the clash to Gregory Isaacs to Duran Duran)
and touring the UK with her classical music
ensemble. And then, at 16, she finally fell in
love with Ella Fitzgerald. So began a passion
that eventually led dido from listener to
participator: she started singing with various
bands in and around London, and despite the
fact that her brother, Rollo, told her not to give
up her day job, she eventually appeared on the
debut album of a band that Rollo formed in
1995. This band was faithless, and they went on
to sell five million records. Over the next two
years, dido toured with Faithless (a very
different experience from her classical days)
and, whenever she was back in London, also
recorded demos of her own songs. On
Faithless's current release, Sunday 8pm, Dido
appears on two songs*one of which incorporates
her own "My Lover's Gone." Arista records heard
these demos at the beginning of 1997, and
Dido was invited to the Dorchester Hotel in
London to meet Clive Davis. The meeting was
successful (Clive even helped out with some of
the backing vocals as Dido sung to him).
So began the recording of Dido's debut album,
No Angel. The album was produced by Dido, her
brother, Rollo (obviously now deciding she
should give up her day job), Rick Nowels and
Youth, and what a beautiful album it is. Unified
by both Dido's stunning voice and lyrical
acuteness, the album travels through various
and diverse styles ranging from the
impassioned magnificence of "here with me,"and diverse styles ranging from the
impassioned magnificence of "here with me,"
the gentle soulfulness of "Thank You" (featured
in the recent Gwyneth Paltrow movie Sliding
Doors), the deep dubbiness of "Honestly Ok,"
to the lyrical perversity of "Don't Think of Me."
Combining Dido's love for warm acoustic sounds
and her brother's fascination for beats and all
things electronic, the album is both new and
classic at the same time. Above all, it is the
quality of the songs that will make this album
both durable and successful. |
