The best tracks fall inside the low half and the only ones truly worth listening to repeatedly are 1,2, and 6. They are, quite simply, the best tracks. Well, that was uncharacteristically direct of me, allow me to digress. No Angel is pop. The just thing that saves it from being instantly panned by me is it has some decent tracks, it has some intelligence. It has some component of engaging. The back track, "Hunter" has wonderful imagery and it displays Dido's excellent singing voice. It's smart. It's interesting and it works. It lays down a murky situation well, the spirit of enslavement is spread well, the hope for freedom is built to expertly. I was surprised by how often I wish the track. The ground I feel myself surprised by it is that the call is possibly the foremost representative of the actual trouble with the album (and the artist) as a whole. The inaugural track "Here With Me" is simply repetitive (though catchy), but "Hunter" opens the core problem of the remaining songs on the album. They're all the same. They have an exposition, a refrain, another stanza, a refrain, a quicker bridge, the refrain, the refrain. You - and I - could get up with a hundred artists who do the like thing. The job is Dido does nothing but. Each of the songs seems to be integrated the same. And they are often overproduced, so the repetitious nature quickly goes from being catchy (driving the song into your head) to simply droll. I am plagued by knowing most of the tunes on the album very well simply by the fact that having heard the album a few times, each line is so repeated as to insinuate itself within me. The most elusive of these tracks is the third. "Don't Mean of Me" is the peak of the produced sound, everything so perfected and uninspired in sound. I confess, part of the pan of this particular path is hearing Dido say "y'all." Sigh. It doesn't work. In the end, I think the reason I am not recommending Dido's album is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. It doesn't have purpose, aim. In the end, it has the voice of, "Well, I believe this will sell." The lyrics have moments of being engaging, the medicine is utterly simplistic. The idea is missing and wait for a lover like a demur kitty, the lines try so to be strong; the album sounds like an identity crisis. The job is, other albums do it better. Fiona Apple's Tidal is one I see an all time great album of crisis of identity. Apple pulls it off because the lyrics are amazing and most never Repetitive. There is consistency in the internal intensity of the singer. Dido, it seems, lacks that cohesiveness. Apple succeeds because even when her strong woman is battered down, the substance remains strong. Dido appears only to fold. Bummer. The strongest track is "Hunter," the weakest track is "Don't Mean of Me," though it's a tight contest ("All You Want," for instance, is a last second). For other albums by strong women, please check out my reviews of:The Jasmine Flower - Heather NovaFearless Love - Melissa EtheridgeLaws Of Illusion - Sarah McLachlan5/10 For early music reviews, please see my power page by clicking here!2001, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.| | |
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