Dido..........................

Life For Rent

From her initial debut success with Eminem on "Stan", Dido has blossomed from strength to strength.
Her own single that made up the "Stan" set was "Thankyou" one of her single which didn't go well before it was added in "Stan", her song has since been noticed by the public in large, A singer-songwriter, Dido proved that she wasn't an favourite of the month by the huge sales of her debut album "No Angel" world wide, it was then several of her singles from the album released, such as "Here with me" and "Hunter".

With the great success of her first album "No Angel" which achieve sales in excess of 12 million copies - and, in doing so, confirmed Dido as one of the greatest british singer.

I'm not a professional music reviewer, but I'll try my best to elaborate my feelings and hopefully we can understand each other... so here it gos, Dido - "Life For Rent" Album review.

Track List

1. White Flag

2. Stoned

3. Life For Rent

4. Mary's In India

5. See U When You're 40

6. Don't Leave Home

7. Who Makes You Feel

8. Sand In My Shoes

9. Do You Have A Little Time

10. This Land Is Mine

11. See the Sun

First track of the album, "white flag" which was debut No.1 in Australia two weeks ago, I personally like the song every time I heard on the car radio, it song is still the "dido style" slow song with her smooth vanilla voice, "White flag" generally saying that her love will never end, she'll never surrander. "I'm in love, and i'm always be" this song makes me remind one of her news saying she had broken up with her fiance because her singing career, well, i guess this song which dido wrote has some meaning within her real life, she devoted her love to us, her lost became our gain. "White flag" is also very simliar with her single "Here with me", "coz nothing i have is truly mine" she sings, "White Flag" reflects that she is not going to fade away from the limelight so easily as some predicted. "Stoned" is the second track of the album, after a long prelude of some slow beats, her voice finally came to the light, "stoned" is a very flat song, mixed with some mediterranean dumb beats and techino, there are no high voice in the song, but alot of echo was used in the song which counters the use of high voice rather then just a very relaxing mood, since the mediterranean instruments was used in the song which she love to use even for alot of her past hits such as "thank you". Now it's the song which was used for the title of the album " Life for rent", It's my favourite song in this whole album, it's a very bueatiful song, Instruments and the rythem are very plain which opens with an acoustic guitar and builds deliberately from there. It's one of the more heartfelt songs here, with Dido keeping the guitar in and giving the tune a hip-hop beat which worked so well, even so, combined with dido's voice and the splendid lyrics she wrote, turns out to be a masterpiece. "Mary's in india", by looking at the title, the song is talking about a woman called mary and her story, through this slow past song, with abit of Mediterranean twist as her always does, the song has no climax, but surely a very relaxing song, best to fit in a coffee shop, perfect ideal for a rest+music after a loudsy workday :)

Right after that, it's track no.5, "See U When You're 40", kicked start with the beats of drum, slowly her voice comes in to places, Dido hits some soft notes that will definitely send chills up some spines. "And I've seen, tonight, what I'd been warned about / I'm gonna leave, tonight, before I change my mind," she sings. again,the song is about her lover probebly her boyfriend who left her, choosing her career rather him. The next track is called "Don't leave home", a very nice song, featured a crispy guiltar and special sound effect, I personally like this song, not very light but not too strong in feeling, "If your cold I'll keep you warm, if your alone just hold on", her voice is loud in this song but doesn't makes you feel noisy and annoying. "Who makes you feel", dido has tried a new style of song, featured some old radio bad reception sound whch made her voice sound crystal clearer respectively compared with the old reception effect, this is a sad song, directly described a broken relationship, "who makes you feel like I make you feel" eventually the song went to it's climax where her voice raised and the music sounds louder mixed with some feeling of anger.

A fast paste song after the sad and slow "who makes you feel", "Sand in my shoes" shows some kind of confidence within dido, the fast rythem (also mixed with mediterranean instruments) "I should get on, forget you" if there are sand in the shoes, she should kick it off and keep walking, the song reflects her real life relationship once again, but in the end she sings "but i will see you again...."it is a sign from dido shows she choosed her career at first, but she wll also trying not to sacrefice the other, even though she sings confidently, but you will still see her sorrow at the end of the song, it was this hope which drives dido till today, well, that's only my point of view.

Bit of RnB taste song "Do you have a little time" this song also portrait her true feelings in her real life, slow beat and sad lyrics makes the song sounds very little in hope, also mixed with some spanish flavour in the song featured acoustic guitar making tunes. In this song dido puts alot of her feeling in the song, echo effects are also in use which makes it feels far away to what she desires.

Another of my favourate song in the album "This Land is Mine", "This Land is Mine" is a soothing and reflective piece, chrous is catchy. Instruments used such as piano really highlighted the song which brings some of joy, Dido's music survived only becasue of her voice, the rythem of the music are really plain, there are no cheeky special or "ear-candy" effects, Last song of the album, "see the sun", a very dramatic and high flucturation song, which means it was low and high, positive song at last, after all sorts of sad songs, "see the sun" demonstrated Dido's final hope, it's about friendship and caring, because of the high shouting during the song, it sounds quite like The cranberries in some sense, I personally like shit song, I really like to hear Dido's high voice, maybe it's too much of slow songs, this one has to be the most difficult song to perform.

Dido - Life for rent, was relased 29\09\2003, It's a great album, if you like her first album, then you need to try this one out, best suited to relax, and calming after a long day, the album will not sale as much as the first one, but i believe it's not the sales figure we are lookin at to judge whether an album is good or not, I have to admit that this album failed to give us a surprise, songs are repeative, lack of different genre, but hey, this is dido, not britney spears :) Strongly recommand~

4\5 Stars from me~

------------By, EvilVice