Dido

While many an artist would have rushed immediately back into the studio to capitalize on the kind of success that Dido achieved with her first two albums, this London-born songwriter saw things very differently. More concerned with her desire to play music than the public's appetite for the almighty hit single, Dido disappeared from the limelight to get back to the heart of her passion. This period of personal and musical development may not have ended in a collection of instant attention-getters, but it did lay the groundwork for one continually soulful, intense (in a deep and minimalist sort of way) and emotional affair.

Though Dido's soft and smooth voice, which walks the line between somber and sensual, remains the focal point of Safe Trip Home, the songstress also provides much of the album's instrumentation as well; including guitar, piano, bells, recorder (which gives the Brian Eno/Mick Fleetwood collaboration, "Grafton Street" a very neo-Celtic, Enya-style feel) and even a few tracks worth of drumming. By immersing herself so deeply into every aspect of the disc, Dido has given Safe Trip Home a very personal sense of organic purity that No Angel and Life For Rent didn't quite have.

If Safe Trip Home could be accused of having a single flaw, it would be the sense of reflective moodiness that blankets the disc doesn't exactly make for a dynamic or diverse listen, but therein also lies its beauty. By mastering the very essence of her impassioned introversion, Dido hasn't merely produced a silvery sampling of her talents, but more of an emotionally cathartic journey that expands with each listen. Safe Trip Home is the type of album that lingers in collective consciousness long after it has fallen off of the charts.

—Ryan Ogle
12.04.08

Perhaps even Dido realized that the chief criticism lodged against her first two albums was that they were a bit too placid, so she decided to change things, albeit subtly, on her third, Safe Trip Home. This album appears five years after 2003's Life for Rent, which is only a year longer than the gap between No Angel and Life, yet it feels like it had a longer gestation: Dido's songs are subtler and richer, and so is the production, largely a collaboration with Jon Brion but also featuring Brian Eno on "Grafton Street." These are two of an impressive lineup of guests who range from Mick Fleetwood to Citizen Cope and ?uestlove from the Roots, but don't be mistaken in thinking that this is a dramatic break from Dido's elegant, shimmering past: it's a deepening, adding layers and textures, both musical and emotional, that are apparent upon the first listen but reveal themselves more with repeat spins. This is less about the surface -- something that Life for Rent could sometimes seem to be all about -- than what's underneath, as Dido's songs here gently hook their way into the subconscious on. There are melancholic edges, but it's not haunting, it's comforting, reassuring music that's quietly powerful, music that Dido hinted at before but never quite made. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide