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 Dido
was 5 years old 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 U.K. 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 8 p.m., Dido appears on
two songs--one of which incorporates her own "My Lover's Gone."
Dido Links
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 sang 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," 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. |
