Review: Dido's latest CD Safe Trip Home

Dec 18 2008 By David Simister

HERE’S a singer-songwriter who could easily have put up her white flag and surrendered by now.

Having already worked with Faithless and Eminem as a guest vocalist, seen two albums enjoy huge success and even inspired her own hairstyle, it’s fair to say Dido could quite rightly have rested on previous laurels.

So Safe Trip Home, her third and latest release, has an awful lot to live up to. It’ll doubtless be a big seller simply on the back of her previous plaudits, but the 11 tracks that have evolved from a hiatus of almost five years are bound to get a mixed reception from all but the most casual of listeners.

The best news is that Dido’s incredible, slightly jagged falsetto remains as strong as it did when No Angel first impressed critics eight years ago. Few voices in pop today are as distinctive and yet so soothing, and deservedly it still gets top billing on an album that’s otherwise a departure from the Dido signature style.

CD provided by Tesco, Llandudno Junction.