November 13, 2008
Home Alone
It’s a good thing Dido’s voice is so soothing, because everything in her world — family, life, love — is unsettled. After a five year break, the silken voice of trip-hop group Faithless, Eminem’s “Stan” and her own hit “Thank You” is back with Safe Trip Home (out November 18, see below to win a copy), and she’s on a journey of self-discovery.
While it may be easy listening, Safe Trip Home is far from easy going. “Grafton Street,” written with Brian Eno, tackles her father’s lupus-related death with an austere melody borrowed from Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street.” In song after song — from the regretful “Quiet Times” to the soft blues of “Burnin’ Love” (with guest vocals by Citizen Cope) — her search for love is dogged by a fierce independence. Or, as she says on “Don’t Believe In Love”: “I want to go bed with arms around me, but wake up on my own.”
It’s that spirit that infuses Dido’s music: the need to touch others while remaining true to herself. And while her journey seems placid at first, by album’s end you realize her trip was anything but safe.
Safe Trip Home will be available November 18 from Arista Records. Modern Tonic has five CDs to give away, email here with your mailing address and winners will be chosen at random tomorrow and notified by email.
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