Folk music has never really made a proper entrance into acceptable society – it’s never even been fashionable, let alone popular. Ok, there’s nothing wrong with women who want to walk around barefoot, waring strange clothes and strumming queerly shaped acoustic guitars, and true, the music that they make is not so much disliked, but more generally ineffective, yet still the word “Folk” is generally not one to bring up in a conversation where your personal credibility is at stake. Back in the 60s, people such as Carole King did indeed have such an image, yet Carole wrote songs for many great artists of the time, and in the end, kick-started her own singing career with a couple of hit albums.
So, why am I babbling on about old folk artists you may wonder, when its true that we hear nothing of them whatsoever in the modern music scene. That is, until the brit awards last year when innovative folk singer and guitarist Beth Orton grabbed the “Best new comer) award. This recognition of 2 years work from Beth, that produced 2 great
albums set the wheels turning for the rebirth of “old folk” into what I term as “urban folk.”
Dido is the latest woman to top the charts with such an urban folk album – No angel, and after months of exposure over in the US, mainly due to Dido featuring on Stan by Eminem, she has finally and deservedly made it big back here in England.
The album itself is probably one of the best collections of tracks I have heard for a very long time by a single artist – combining more traditional folky piano, guitars and striking vocals with more modern electronic percussion, basss and weird funky electronica style backing and synth effects. Dido’s brother Rolo, of the trance band Faithless helped produce her debut album, and his influence is evident, particularly in tracks such as “Take my hand” whilst Dido herself performed vocals on some of Faithless’s early tracks in 1995. Since then, Dido spent some 5 years sitting in the shadow of her brothers 5 million album selling band, but with her own creative flare and natural ability as a musician (playing flute and piano from the age of 5), and a bit of help from Rolo, Dido has produced a staggering LP.
The great thing about this album is its consistent good quality and its appeal as an album that you can listen to any time, anywhere, independent of your mood. It is painfully true that too often these days, people are going out and buying chart albums on the strength of a few singles, only to find that the rest of the CD is complete rubbish – this is after all how most girl/boy groups manage to make their millions, but with No Angel, none of those “Why did I buy this?” regrets are present. Indeed, after I bought it I was actively encouraging people to do the same, and her success is marked by the fact that her current tour is sold out in many venues – only a month or two after the release of her first album.
This is the kind of album where you could have selected virtually all the tracks as potential candidates for singles, but as it stands, the singles are currently Thank You (sampled in Stan) and Here With Me. Thank You will always be the song that we can say made Dido famous, but it is arguably not her best by any means – it has an very strong melody which once you’ve heard, will stick in your head for a long time, but I ask myself, if this track hadn’t had its connections with Stan by Eminem, would so many people be rushing out to buy the track? The current single Here With Me also has other links with the Roswell High American TV series, although don’t let this put you off, it’s fresh, rich in musical depth and again, displays the stunning vocal and lyrical ability of Dido herself.
As well as the singles, No angel delivers some darker and more subtle ideas with the defiant Don’t Think of Me, the wistful Isobel (in my opinion the best grower on the album) and the emotion filled, retro style Take My Hand. Dido has taken the lead of many a great song writer, touching on topics such as losing lovers and friends and basically managing to write in no uncertain terms about life and its ups and downs. Sounds dull? Don’t be deceived; you’d think that there’s only so many songs you can write about such subjects, but Dido has managed to take the ideas a little bit further, and with her own versatile and rich voice, as well as her musicians whom we mustn’t forget, she has managed to create a completely new recipe book dictating the way that folk music is composed and performed.
I would seriously recommend this to any music lover. It is original, instantly likeable and has great lastability - you’ll find yourself putting it back in your CD player again and again. Let’s hope that Dido’s next releases are as powerful as her first.
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Hey, blimey 'eck kiddo, that was a cool op for your first one, I like Dido, so there's one for the night out :o)
MRSCANADA 18.03.2002 02:57
Good to the last drop! LL
miggle 30.07.2001 14:44
urban folk? well okay if you say...! can i add to your disadvantages and complain that radio 1 keep playing Dido to death... they do have a bad habit of killing songs about 6 months after i first get them... -v.annoying. Interesting op -was trying to figure out the dido-faithless connection as she's scattered all around my faithless albums!
Advantages: Great consistency of high quality-lyrics, a few styles incorporated, contains some excellent moments in music history (namely the 'Stan' excerpt) Disadvantages: A few weak tracks, some tracks are nearly identical to others, sounds boring first-time through, no positive thoughts
![No Angel (UK Edition) [ECD] - Dido](http://imagesb.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/normal/811/product-5097811.jpg)
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Mar 19th, 2001
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