You’ll have heard the best of ‘No Angel’ already. Sad to say, but nothing on this album matches the graceful, hauntingly melancholy verses of ‘Thank You’ that Eminem nicked for ‘Stan’. Least of all the chorus of ‘Thank You’, which, far from conjuring up images of lunatic fan-worship, is more reminiscent of The Corrs. Now that really is sick.
Still, it’s no surprise that Dido, folk-beat Brit, sister of Rollo from Faithless, is so massive in America right now. She’s close to selling a million over there, while still relatively obscure in her home country. While Eminem represents one hyper-marketable mall-culture product (pissed-off, loud, fuckable, ‘dumb’), Dido is essentially another (willing, nice tunes, pretty, ‘real emotions’). She’s ‘music for people who buy one CD a year’ personified, another beats-by-association Everything But The Girl-style strum’n’bass bore.
Really, it’s galling to think that something as musically inoffensive and lyrically tedious as this should find such a massive audience when Beth Orton does similar comedown folktronica with such soul and verve and remains, more or less, a cult favourite.
Amazing, then, that Eminem managed to meld the ridiculous and the banal and come up with something close to genius. Just stick with Slim, though, ‘cos Dido’ll leave you cold.
Christian Ward
