Safe Trip Home - Dido

My Rating: 76/100

Tracklist:

1. Don't Believe In Love

2. Quiet Times

3. Never Want To Say It's Love

4. Grafton Street

5. It Comes And It Goes

6. Look No Further

7. Us 2 Little Gods

8. The Day Before The Day

9. Let's Do The Things We Normally Do

10. Burnin Love

11. Northern Skies

Dido, Feist, Keren Ann, Sarah McLachlan...

These are 4 of my favorite female singer-songwriters. They all share similar vocal qualities, the purity, sweetness, authenticity, and width of soundscape in their materials have gotten me addicted to them. These 4 are always played in my car, on my iPod, my hifi... basically I just pick any one of their albums and I can spend an afternoon with it.

I tend to group Dido and Sarah in the same category. They are a little more mature (both in song contents and vocal delivery) and more mainstream (both have megahits known all around the world). And Feist and Keren tend to be more experimental and more 'out of the box'.

The "Madonna of Britain" Dido released her 3rd full album Safe Trip Home in Nov 2008, five years after her critically and commercially acclaimed sophomore work, Life For Rent, which I loved by the way.

The main theme of this album is about "saying goodbyes". Dido said in an interview that she only wants to put out an album when she has something to say. Affected by her dad's death a couple of years ago, the album is apparently inspired by this life changing event and a tribute to Mr. Armstrong.

The first impression after listening to all the tracks on Safe Trip Home is... it's really SAFE. The melancholy mood is still melancholy, the beautiful voice is still beautiful, the sense of stability in her materials is still very much present... the one difference is that more 'real" and acoustic instruments (guitar, strings, piano) are used instead of electronic ones. However, I have a little bit of trouble telling songs apart from each other. But seriously, I don't really mind at all that she's repeating herself. I love her voice, melodies, lyrics, and the simple arrangements, aka, her 'signature dishes' :)

A few songs do jump out at me, let's look at them more up close...

Northern Skies

A 9 minute long, subtle, minimal electronica track, with a steady drum loop and emphasis on bass line, it reminds me of Sandy Lam's Live 07 version of "Lonely Shooting Stars". The sense of tranquility keeps on looping till the very end, so far I like this track the best.

Grafton Street

Probably a close second to Northern Skies, it also has that similar minimalist vibe to it. This song pays tribute to places that were part of your life which you no longer visit anymore. To Dido, it's Grafton Street, to me, it's probably school... Dido's voice is hauntingly beautiful in this song... The flute and strings heard in the bridges gives it a lively and foriegn touch!

The Day Before The Day

This is another song where Dido's vocal abilities are applied to the max. It's a very simple song with just an acoustic guitar accompanying her. I think "silky" is a good word to describe that beautiful quality of her voice heard here.

Let's Do The Things We Normally Do

A consistent theme of Safe Trip Home is the sense of leaving or parting with someone, something, someplace. The theme is spoken (or sung) out bluntly here in this little mysterious track:

"Don't hold my hand for longer than you need to,

Don't look me in the eye more than you need to,

Don't try to say goodbye if I don't want to."

Don't Believe In Love

This song reminds me of "White Flag", the first single of her previous album. The darkness portrayed in the lyrics is very typical for Dido and other British alt-rock artists. It is definitely something that all pessimistic ppl like me enjoy. This song here starts the album off with a cool bass riff, giving it an edgier quality. Without it, I think this would be just another "pop song".