Dido, Girl Who Got Away

Dido

Girl Who Got Away

Reviewed by: Jane Roser

It’s been five years since Dido’s last album and can you believe 14 years since “Here With Me” helped shoot the British chanteuse to stardom as the theme song to the teen alien hit “Roswell”. I personally looked forward each week to hearing her haunting lyrics “I won’t leave, I can’t hide, I cannot be until you’re resting here with me” as much as I wanted to find out if Max and Liz would ever find true happiness. Which is why I really, really wanted to like her fourth album The Girl Who Got Away. However, I found it tedious, uninspiring and dare I say it…boring.

“No Freedom”, the first track as well as the first single released is catchy and reminded me of Heather Nova and Eva Cassidy with it’s beautiful lyrics and haunting tone. Dido’s senior effort deals with love lost, hopelessness, death and loneliness. It’s what Bridget Jones would listen to after a break up, so you have to be prepared to be thoroughly depressed afterwards. I can only recommend listening to this album with a pint of pistachio ice cream and a shot of bourbon.

The title track “The Girl Who Got Away” has a weird electro beat that, actually most of the songs on this album have, and doesn’t seem to fit the feel of Dido’s vocals and lyrics. Like a square peg in a round hole, it feels too forced and contrived, plus I had a flashback to the one time in the 90’s I attended a rave and swore never to be subjected to that kind of torture again. Dido’s brother, Rollo Armstrong, was the producer and considering his DJ background, you can feel his influence throughout. The song itself has some lovely lyrics “I wanna move with the seasons; go with the flow; take it easy; and let stuff go.” And I love this one “I want to think the heart is bigger than the head; wanna follow you but not be led.” This is one of several tracks where I found the lyrics so lovely, but once the music was added and that weird techno beat, I just wanted to turn it off.

“End of the Night” is the only fun, upbeat song on the album and apparently, from reading Dido’s Twitter feed the day she answered fan’s questions, it’s a fan favorite as well and she promised to make it the second single (and she did). It’s a rollicking sugary-laced number that reminded me of a song DeBarge would have sung in the late 80’s, only Dido did it better.

“Sitting On The Roof” is a a simple, heartfelt song written by Rollo Armstrong. It also had a slight tinge of stalkerness with the lyric “Looking in windows; and playing songs; and knocking on doors; and I was not scared.” I’m pretty sure this song is not about a stalker, but if you’ve ever had one, you would jump to the same conclusion, too.

“Happy New Year” was another fan favorite of Dido’s Twitter followers and I can see why. It’s a pretty song and her inspiration was the fact that she had had a few “dodgy” New Years Eves in the past and now prefers New Years Day. I’ve also decided that I love following Dido on Twitter and you should, too. She is charming and refreshingly candid. And also quite adorable.

The final track is a retro-sounding tune called “The Day Before We Went To War”. Dido recalls that the vocals were recorded in her brother’s garden since it was too hot inside. Hence the reasons why you can hear birds faintly chirping in the background, which honestly, more musicians should totally incorporate because it sounds really cool.

The deluxe edition has 18 tracks, while the standard edition has only 11, but since these are all remixes of songs on the album, anyways, save your extra few bucks and buy a latte so you have a bit of a pick-me-up after listening to this.

Dido’s No Angel and Life For Rent were both ranked #2 on the UK’s top selling albums of the late 90’s and early 00’s and The Girl Who Got Away has already soared to #1 (as of two weeks ago before it hit the US) on iTunes in 34 countries. Dido has very loyal, loving fans, so I think this album will do very well in the US and I wish her loads of success because she is awesome. This album just wasn’t my cuppa tea this time around.