Dido - Life for Rent

This is Dido's new album, which is her second.

If I could only use one word to describe it, it would have to be "fantastic". Very definately on the same sort of level as her first album, and I already think that I prefer this one.

The better songs (to me, this is personal taste of course) are White Flag, Life For Rent, Do you have a little time and See the sun. However, the truly outstandingly awesome track of the disc (IMO) is Don't Leave Home. This may just have taken top spot in my regard as the greatest song ever. It's definately top 5.

This album has been some time coming, but it was definately worth the wait. Already I am looking forward to Dido's next album, but in the meantime I shall be enjoying this one immensely.

 

The "l" is invisible.

 

That's because it's you-know-where.

 

Arf!

 

I bought this album this afternoon and was all set to have a couple of run throughs this evening. The album has some kind of copy control software and won't play on my silver disc spinner (DVDP/DAC). pretty pissed off at the moment.
Strangely it plays OK on my computer DVD rom drive and any one of a number of CD portables in the house, just not on my main Hi-Fi Sony DVDP. Pretty pissed off at the moment, guess I'll have to get my money back tomorrow and try to blagg a copy from somewhere.

 

sid,
bmg's copy protection is notoriously wank. kosheen's kokopelli skips 10 seconds into each track on my naim cd5 although dido plays just fine. as for the content of dido's new album i've got to agree with isaac in that if you liked her first one you'll love this one.
cheers

julian

 

Sussed it.
I think the problem is that there is a computer program on the disc, a media player i believe. you also need the disc handy if you wish to access some extra 'stuff' via the www.lifeforrent.com website. I didn't bother with any of the extra content as the 'required fields' where being far too nosey and i figured i'd get even more spam , even if i ticked the 'i don't want any info' box.

I managed to get the disc to play by extracting the audio files off the original disc (PCM, 16 bit 44.100 stereo .wav files ) and then burning them onto a CD-R.
To sum up my original disc doesn't work on my DVD transport but my Pirated copy works perfectly- go figure...

I don't really want to, but i'll be taking the disc back today for a refund. It's just no use to me . I wonder if there is a vinyl edition ( and if so whether it has any copy protection )

 

Dido

Julian, it's the liking the first album I have a problem with. Smoooooth.

She's very good looking but can't sing. The other thing is the ridiculous accent she adopts with morphed vowels: "I" comes out as "Ah".

Chick musick?

YMMV as always.

 

Allthough I'd like to have this CD (I liked her first album) I haven't bought it because of the copy protection.

I'm making it a policy of mine not to buy (permanently) any copy protected CDs and either to download them as MP3s (illegally) from the net or to buy the CD, rip it and then return it. As far as I'm concerned artists or labels who issue copy protected CDs should be penalised for it

The method they're using on this CD (Cactus Data Shield) is supposed to play on all "audio" CD players but as has been noticed, it doesn't. Even more outrageously they say it plays on computers but that's because they stick some software (media player) on there and a pathetic 96Kbps (or lower!) compressed rip of the CD for the media player to read so you're not getting a CD playing on your PC at all, you're getting a horrible, highly compressed rip. And if you have a Mac - tough.

What's even more laughable is that the copy protection doesn't actually work! I've made 99% perfect rips of CDS protected CDs without using any special tricks. I say 99% because on 1 or 2 tracks you occasionly get a tiny little audible glitch. So all the hassle isn't worth it anyway

My beef with the copy protection is that, assuming it worked (which it doesn't), I would have no way to get a copy of the CD to my Minidisc, iPod or whatever other digital portable I choose to use and it's fully within my legal rights to do that. As with DVD copy protection, it has removed the ability to make completely legal "fair use" copies.

Michael.

 

james,
ah well there's no accounting for taste - maybe your mana is making her sound wierd (joke dude)

michael,
i agree 100% with what you are saying about being allowed to make copies for personal use. but having seen what piracy run rife can do to sales of a product (computer games where 1 in 4 or fewer copies used is legal!) i can also sympathise with record companies not wanting to allow copies to be made. current protection schemes though are a joke.
to my mind buying the cd should entitle you to be able to download or be sent (or have them contained on a 2nd cd in the package already) a version of the album as mp3 or atrac or whatever your codec of choice. the real problem is people abusing their rights (of personal use copies) and making copies for mates or for commercial reasons. it's all down to trust and unfortuinately the record co's are seeing a drop in profits due to music copying (allegedly) and so they are fighting back (well thrashing around inefectually) as they are seeing their trust being abused. unfortunately i can't see any way to solve this problem other than allowing copies to be made uninhibited, this would mean a game like situation where only garuanteed hits get money spent on them or a situation where copies are impossible but this would require completely new hardware. the answer? search me....
cheers

julian

 

True.

Do you like:

a) Bridget Jones
b) Coffee tables
c) Sunday supplement lifestyle magazines
d) Friends
e) Sex and the city
f) Cute cuddly toys?

Dido is pap of the first order with no musical merit whatsoever. It sounds good-boring on mid-fis because it's well-produced and inoffensive. If you like it, well....

Try Cara Dillon, she has way more soul; try The Black Keys, music to fire you up.

Dido?!! What sort of mood do you have to be in to play Dido? If your girlfriend has PMT and you need to smooth her down, well maybe.

All in MHO, no offence intended to any reader unless you are Dido.

 

Some of the Cara Dillon stuff i've heard os excellent. A beautiful voice and good tunes. Can't remember the other names (mp3s) but a few related artists popped up while investigating her which I liked. Think they were from a previos band. They were good too. However, I found a fair chunk of her stuff to be poor.

I found the Dido album a bit too "nice". At first a pleasent enough listen, but nothing to really grip you or make you want to come back for MOre.

 

james,
that's amazing, you've just listed my 6 favouritest things in the whole wide world, ever, in the history of the universe. how can you know so much about me, are you psychic? i believe in them too and spend hundreds of pounds every month talking on those psychic phone lines so i know exactly whats going to happen in my life. shame it never turns out how i expect though. i also like fwuffy wikkle bunny wabbits.

but back to reality.... nope i wouldn;t say i 'like' any of the things listed. i do however consider dido to have some artistic merit. the fact that her music has been featured on and has inspired other artists work has to mean that i'm not alone in thinking that her stuff isn't half bad. still as you always say it's down to personal choice.
cheers

julian

 

Julian,

"What Ah chewse tew doo is of nah concern tew yew,
It's Mah life...." etc.

So is she still warbling away about her precious 'life'?

 

james,
not be an avid starwatcher i'm not sure if she's warbling about her life per se or just life in general, however seeing as i guess 80%ish of music is written about the writers personal experience i'd say that there's a good chance that she is singing about her life. is this a bad thing?
also i hope:

was meant literally, because being sarcastic about how precious life is, is worrying in a physician

cheers

julian

 

Cara Dillon was in Equation before striking out on her solo career, IIRC she replaced (or was replaced by) Kate Rusby. The one major fault I find with both of her albums (both of which I like a lot) is that there's not much variation in them, although with a voice that good maybe there is less need for it. If there's any justice, maybe the second album will shift a few units, Virgin made quite an effort to push the first one in their stores a few months after it came out.

Anyway, she's young and will get better. A friend & I saw her live just last Tuesday, excellent show, really does put the albums to shame. Superb version of There Were Roses, which was used as the intro. music for (the Irish part of) Billy Connolly's world tour of the UK & Ireland. The only thing that would've made the show better would be if she'd maybe sung one song solo, and properly acoustic (i.e. not miked up), the theatre was small enough that it would've worked really well.

I'd certainly recommend anyone go and see her if she's playing locally, but get there on time, we were lucky, usually there's a support act for shows at our local art centre, but there wasn't for her, she came on at 8, played 2 sets and finished around 10.10. Dates are at www.caradillon.com

As for Dido, I'm not really a fan, would pretty much go along with MO!'s description of her.

 

Hi Julian,

Precious as in 'she's a bit of a precious madam', if you see what I mean. She's fit tho'. Cheers.

 

james,
please understand that anything i say on this thead is muffled and distorted from having my tongue firmly stuck in my cheek. arguing about dido's artistic integrity is quite silly really. the fact that i quite like her music as well as her looks, whilst you appear to only aprieciate her aesthetics is a matter of taste. in fact i am listening to her 'warblings' as i type.
cheers

julian

 

I left out
of the 'do you like' list:

g) Ally McBeal

!



I still say she's rubbish.

 

Someone posted a link to her site a while back. I remember looking at it then and reading through the message board and noticing some quite "stalker" / obsessed sounding posts then. I see the same names seem to still be posting!

EEK!