What do you do when your debut album makes you a household name and gives you the undisputed title Queen of Melancholy? You take your time and go off and release another hopefully fabulous album. Dido with her unique vocal style has followed up the 1999 release of No Angel with an album that in some ways could be considered even better than her first. Life for Rent is perhaps more of the same but Dido still manages to surprise and explore her musical talent to the full.

Someone, once said to me that Life to Rent was the kind of album, where if life was tough, you grabbed a bottle of wine and a bar of choccie and allowed her to soothe away all your problems as after hearing all about her's you'd realize yours where nothing in comparison! Now before you get the impression that this album is a near suicidal showcase it's not. Dido cleverly crafts together many aspects of modern society gone wrong and gives her interpretation of it - very well in some cases.Yes it's melancholic in places, yes it's damn right depressing in other places but some how Dido manages to soothe away your own personal stresses with her unique vocal and instrumental style. It's the kind of album I listen to when I need time out from the world, when I need to have my inner self kissed better and yes this album really does do that!

The album is no means unique in it's contents, Dido uses the same old sad song fodder of love gone wrong, unrequited love etc but what is unique perhaps is her intepratation of it.Lyrically this album is not the strongest but add her vocal style to them and you do have lyrics that make you think.Add a polished instrumental sound track and you have one hell of a good album on your hands.

As with most of her musical career Life for Rent is a collaboration with her brother Rollo, all the tracks were co writen with him, with the occasional input from another writer. The pair also worked together to produce the album.

***White Flag***

Opening with a classical meets synthesizer sound which belies the fact Dido studied music at the Royal College of Music, the instrumental interpretation make this track a superb way to open an album. What really makes this one of my favourites tracks on the album is Dido's stunning intepratation of lyrics that on reading are a little bit lack luster in places but some how seem to work.

Ever been in love? Ever been in love so much it hurts? Ever been in love so much it hurts but you'll fight to the bitter end to stop it slipping away? If you nod in agreement with the latter statement then Dido might well be talking about you. How many of us have hoped against hope that just maybe......Just maybe if we speak up then we might just change things, that we have to give it one last shot, that we even if we do have to walk away we'll do it knowing that the other person knows with out a doubt how we feel......I'm sure there are a fair few people here who have refused to wave the white flag of surrender without giving it one last shot......

"Well I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be........"

***Stoned***

You could be forgiven in thinking that this was going to be Dido's look at drug addiction with it's title. I suppose in a way if you think of love as a drug then you might well be right in your surmising.

Stoned opens with a trance like instrumental opener with drum beats featuring heavily, it seems to go on for ever but in fact only lasts a minute. The drum beat features heavily throw out the rest of the tract.

Dido in Stoned attempts to look at how soul destroying it is being in a relationship that is one sided, how lonely and soul destroying it can be. Dido in her unique way shows us that we deserve better. Stoned charts the realization that you are in a one sided relationship because just maybe you might be able to get them to love you, that the loneliness and the disregard you are held in will be worth while once they realize that they do indeed love you. The closing lyrics where she asks to be taken home are poignant in the fact she finally realizes that she deserves better, that we all deserve better......

"Cause if you won't let me fall for you
Then you won't see the best that
I would love to do for you......."

***Life for Rent***

A truly beautiful and poignant track that looks at the fact that just sometimes you have to take a risk to reach hold of your dreams.You imagine that Dido sings from the bittersweet experience of someone who has been hurt in love before and now needs to realize that just sometimes you have to take the risk of heart ache to find true happiness. That you can live your life with barriers up but you can only be truly happy if you lay down those barriers and take the risk that heart ache may come knocking again or you might just find true happiness.....

"If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy
Well I deserve nothing more than I get
Cos nothing I have is truly mine......."

***Mary's in India***

I'm sure we've all done it, kept an eye on a friend who's been left high and dry in the love life stakes haven't we? Be they male or female we've all wanted to make sure they are ok that they are getting throw it all.I'm sure we've all done the late night phone calls to a grief stricken friend, shared their joy when they get throw a day without thinking of the one they've lost and finally be there when the realization that they can get throw this and come out the other end still emotionally intact.

Dido in Mary's in India gives us her take of this. With a melodic, slow instrumental backing this poignant track charts the course of someone watching a good friend hurting and wanting to wash their pain away for them. But knowing that all they can do is be there for them. Dido worries as I'm sure we all have about whether Danny is eating properly "Danny's not eating, he's drinking and sleeping in....." she's there when Danny packs up all of Mary's things and finally with a twist in the tail ends up with Danny telling Mary not to worry about him as she's taking care of him now......

"And we danced and we drank and I've seen some things
you probably never got the chance to see
Don't worry, Mary cos I'm taking care of Danny
And he's taking care of me......."

***See you when you're 40***

I'm sure we've all gone back to a lover that we know that deep down is not going to change, that our rose tinted spectacles show us an untrue image and then finally we regain our senses. In See you when your 40 Dido tell how that just sometimes we have to revisit the past if only to realize that what we really knew deep down is true.

See you when your 40 shows that it's only human to make mistakes, that we learn by our mistakes. It charts the realization from driving around for hours and thinking that just maybe it will work out even though those close to us have warned us to finally realising that no way on earth would it work. That the person you thought they were isn't the person you are now faced with. That this is not a person you want in your life.

"And I've seen, tonight, what I'd been warned about
I'm gonna leave, tonight, before I change my mind......"

***Don't leave home***

At this point in the album the tempo shifts up a notch or two, gone are the slow melodic sounds of the previous tracks, but it's still distinctively a Didoesque sound.

On first listening this track made me think it was about being there for someone, being their safety net and giving this love unconditionally. Listening again I'm more of the thought it's about wanting to give every thing and in some way control that person. It's about forsaking others as so often happens in a new relationship Dido suggests "close the blinds and shut the door, you don't need other friends any more" Not the strongest track on the album but not one I automatically hit skip on either.

"Oh how quiet, quiet the world can be
When it's just you and little me
Everything is clear and everything is new
So you won't be leaving will you"

***Who makes you feel***

I did a double take when I first heard this track as it sounds so unlike Dido, with a very poppy feel to it, this track sounds a little out of place with the other melodic tracks on the album. But this does not mean it's a bad track far from it.

In Who Makes You Feel Dido tells the tale of a relationship gone stale, of the realization that just maybe it's time to bale out, that you can no longer paper over the cracks and indeed don't really want to. A poignant reminder that you don't have to be stuck in a rut nor accept second best.That you don't deserve second best.

"But listen and think when I say
Oh but listen and think when I say
Who makes you feel the way that I make you feel......"

***Sand in my shoes***

I'm sure we've all had a holiday romance in our time, and jolted back to reality on our return home, back as Dido puts it to the flat on the road, where the cars never stop going through the night. Where for those first few days at home you just wish your self back watching sunsets and getting sand in your shoes.

Sand in my shoes opens with a synthesizer beat that practically drowns out the faint roar of the waves in the back ground. Somehow the instrumental tracking just doesn't work with the rather poignant lyrics. I wanted a soulful Dido, I wanted a melochancolic Dido not some jazzed up pop version of her.

"I've still got sand in my shoes
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to......"

***Do you have a little time***

In most relationships there comes a time when it all becomes a bit routine and those first few months where you spent every available minute together and if you weren't together you were on the phone/texting mailing etc see far away. Dido in Do you have a little time looks at a relationship where she feels neglected where she wants just a little time. She points out to her lover that he can find her standing by over here at the side of your life. You know that she wants to shout I'm here, spend some time with me! She wants to show her lover she will always be there for him but she feels neglected, perhaps a spare part in his life.....

"Do you have a little time
Do you have a little time for me
If you should stop for a while
You will find me standing by
Over here at the side of your life....."

***This land is mine***

This track could easily be the follow on from Life to rent, having learnt the lesson that you do have to take a risk in life to find happiness This land is mine shows Dido to be in a new relationship, mindful of past hurts but gradually taking down the barriers around her heart in order to be able to love again, but stating loud and clear that she is in charge. she admits she's been hurt but bit by bit the walls are coming down.

This land of mine opens with an upbeat guitar sound and Dido gives her all vocally in this track, it's very reminiscent of Thank You from the No Angel album.

"This land is mine and I let you rule
I let you navigate on demand
Just as long as you know…this land is mine...."

***See the Sun***

We've all been there for a friend I'm sure when their relationship goes wrong but there comes a point when you do have to perhaps gently tell them to let go that there is no going back and that indeed going back really isn't an option for them! Dido in a surprisingly upbeat sounding track tells a friend that they need to move on that they can't carry on mopping about that they need to live life again bullying them into making tentative steps back to the land of The living - "We're going for a walk, I know you can You can wear anything as long as it's not black .Please don't mourn forever..." She goes on to point out that even though it's over they should be grateful for having ever known them - " Do you remember telling me you found the sweetest thing of all You said one day this was worth dying for So be thankful you knew her at all" but all the while gently telling them it is over and that they will get back to normal again that they will see the sun again but they have to move on.

"And you probably don't want to hear tomorrow's another day
Well I promise you you'll see the sun again....."

Life for Rent in my opinion is a worthy follow up to No Angel and one of those albums you have to listen to at least once to fully appreciate how talented Dido is.

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Thanks for reading xxx