Life for Rent

The dance beats are fresher here than on Dido's debut No Angel, the production is clean and new, and she has great knack for tuneful modern folk-pop. 200 gram vinyl.

Despite its somewhat polite, trip-hoppy surface, Dido Armstrong’s music frequently rests on a melancholy that can only be called courageous in the current pop world. Few singer-songwriters with 12 million record sales behind them would offer a single such as Life for Rent’s "White Flag," which is in part an apology for the "mess and destruction" the narrator has left with her lover. Emotions are even stickier on other tracks, with Dido’s Dusty-ish voice coolly sweeping through "Don’t Leave Home," one of the creepiest codependent-love songs since "Every Breath You Take," and in "Who Makes You Feel," ticking off a list of reasons why an affair is dying, while also admitting that she still loves the guy. It’s a hard-won romanticism, too, that pokes its head up in the tough-minded "This Land is Mine" and "Do You Have a Little Time" ("I’d like to hold you still/Remind you of all you’ve missed"). A knotty and rewarding album. --Rickey Wright