No Angel

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Editorial reviews

Album Description
Single Disk edition.

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Amazon.com
Dido's debut is molded from Sarah McLachlan's intimate soul, Sinéad O'Connor's Celtic yelp, and Beth Orton's morose resolve--with all the sharp edges rounded out. Sculpted by producers Rollo (her brother) and techno-scientist Youth, No Angel is dream-pop mixed with Portishead-esque trip-hop; the results are midtempo ballads that would feel at home in Seal's neighborhood. The melancholy opener, "Here with Me," incorporates acoustic rhythm guitar, fluid strings, and a snare-driven tempo that simulates the slapping of rain off a windshield. "My Lover's Gone" is ethereal and misty, sounding at once ancient and modern with its synthesized ocean sounds and seagull cries. The only clunker is "Don't Think of Me," a passive, soft-bellied cousin to Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know." These songs play out beautifully in that quiet zone between slumber and consciousness--where you can see everything behind closed eyes. --Beth Massa

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-11-30 rating:
DIDO "NO ANGEL"
There's alot of reviews on Amazon that I think are just completely pointless, I'm not saying that someone has to totally agree with what I think over someone's album, even when someone gives an album a really good review it can different because we all interpret music in different ways. I wish Amazon would delete the pointless reviews that don't mention the actual album in any way at all.

I think there are some brilliant albums that have been released but there aren't alot of albums that are exceptionally brilliant, "No Angel" by Dido is definitely an exceptionally brilliant album, she has completely got her own style going on, first of all I'll talk about her voice, there are so many artists with amazing voices, whether it's powerful or whether they have alot of different ranges, without sounding too dramatic, the word to describe Dido's voice would be pure, she hasn't got a really powerful voice but she does have a pure sounding voice, the only other artist who's voice I would say is pure would be Tina Arena, she has a very powerful voice too. On songs like "My Lover's Gone" or "Take My Hand" I don't think anyone's voice would actually work other than Dido's, on "My Lover's Gone" her voice and the music makes you feel like you're kind of in the song, I always picture she's singing by the sea on this song, "Take My Hand" shows the electronic sounds that are the main part of Dido's music, then there's the songs like "Here With Me," "Hunter," "All You Want" and "Thank You" that were all obviously going to be singles, yet there not too mainstream, it's good that Dido doesn't write music with the intention of being a hit in the charts, "Don't Think Of Me" is a nice sing-a-long track that I thought would have been a single, but it doesn't stand out as a song that would be a single, none of her songs do, they're all of a similar sound and just simply Dido's style. I think "Isobel" is quite a sad song, the lyrics seem sad to me, I'm not sure what it's actually about, I'll try and find interviews with Dido to see what she said about it, her voice makes it sad though aswell. You also never get confused with what she's actually singing, there can be artists who have the odd word that you need to check but because her voice is so pure and clear, there isn't that problem with Dido. "Christmas Day" is a great little story, and although it has a Christmas sound, it's not too Christmasy, I don't think it would fit on a Christmas album either. "Honestly OK" and "Slide" have a really good electronic sound, "I'm No Angel" has an acoustic guitar on it which sounds good. "My Life" is a simple little song where Dido is saying how everything isn't anyone's buisness because it's her life.

This really is an exceptionally brilliant album, I don't particularly like writing reviews as such as I don't think I'm good at giving an accurate description of what I'm reviewing, I guess it's because you have to actually hear the album, so even the New York Times or whoever couldn't actually say what an album is really like. If the reviews that got posted on Amazon which don't mention anything about the album were deleted because they're pointless, I wouldn't actually write reviews, I just think the ratings for people's albums go lower than they actually should be due to this.

So, 10 out of 10 from me (or 5 out of 5 for Amazon) :)

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review by: Music Is Life... date: 2008-08-25 rating:
Not outstanding
I was honestly expecting more, after reading the reviews and acclaim. But this album is simply average. It takes from a wide range of sources in which the music is just simply done better! Her voice is average at best, with no substance that would make it attractive were it not for the production of the sound. The lyrics are cheesy and corny and plain dumb. I'm not sold!

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review by: date: 2008-04-25 rating:
Shadows overcrowd this album, but Dido pulls through
After hearing and immediately falling in love with Dido's second album, "Life for Rent", I decided to give her debut album a shot. (Over 1,000 reviews giving it high ratings didn't hurt either.)
The cd opens out with the smashing "Here with Me" that shows the power and strength that I love in Dido's "White Flag". The lyrics are simple, but it's so stirring, you won't be unmoved.
Dido then slides into dark and troubled waters with "Honestly OK", "My Lover's Gone", and "My Life", which are mainly just a few lines and lots of electronic instrumentals: not neccesarily a bad thing, but the songs turned out a little shallow and unfulfilling. Dido redeems herself with the title track ( not a dirty, flirty song as you might be expecting, but simply expounding on the "strive for excellece, not perfection" idea); and the smash hit, "Thank You". "All You Want" and "Isabel" aren't bad, but they seem to be lacking something - I wasn't hooked.
The whole album carries a dark and depressing undertone of heartache and loss, which gently pulls you in under into it's sweeping undertow and you feel it softly bearing you away to somewhere solitary and shadow-covered. But dear Dido, give us a chance to breath!
So the bottom line is, there are a few good songs on here and I don't regret buying it(After all, I got it for $1 used), but I enjoyed "Life For Rent" more. Her voice, songwriting skills, and mixing is more developed and mature than in "No Angel". I'd advise you to get both.

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review by: date: 2008-03-25 rating:
Dido soars with 'No Angel.'
Let me join in the chorus of five-star reviews to praise this perfect pop album. Dido (whose full name is Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong) first caught my attention when I heard her song "Thank You" on the Sliding Doors soundtrack (which Eminem sampled in his UK number-one single "Stan"). However, her breakthrough occurred a year later with the release of No Angel, which has since sold twelve million copies worldwide. My interest in Dido soared. The album features two singles, "Thank You" (perhaps the greatest break-up of all time) and "Here With Me," amidst a setlist of equally infectious, melancholic at times, trip-hop songs. Dido's third, long-awaited album is currently in production and is due later this year (September 23, 2008). The complete No Angel setlist of sure-to-get-stuck-in-your-head-songs includes:

1. Here With Me 4:15
2. Hunter 3:57
3. Don't Think Of Me 4:32
4. My Lover's Gone 4:27
5. All You Want 3:53
6. Thank You 3:37
7. Honestly Ok 4:37
8. Slide 4:52
9. Isobel 3:54
10. I'm No Angel 3:55
11. My Life 2:59
12. Take My Hand 6:42

G. Merritt


review by: Book Collector date: 2008-03-24 rating:
A Celtic queen sings of love lost
Intimacy, poignancy, memories, melancholy, and loss are represented in this 1999 CD, the first by Dido, now a British music icon. This work represents the epitome of success (to me) because every song is a winner. No pushing the skip button on any of these.

Dido has been compared with other singers--Sinead O'Connor, Sarah MacLachlan, and Beth Orton, but there are no comparisons--Dido is an original, a force all her own.

Her birth name is Florian Cloud de Bounevaille O'Malley Armstrong, daughter of a French poet and Irish politician, but she informally calls herself Dido. The mythic/historical Dido/Elissa was queen of Carthage at the time Rome was founded and later succorred and bedded Aeneas after the Trojan War, after which he left her to return to Rome.

1. "Here with me"--I didn't hear you leave/I don't want to move a thing, it might change my memory....I cannot be, until you're resting here with me.
2. "Hunter"--One of two favorites--She wants to be a "hunter" again, to take a chance on life again; love has died.
3. "Don't think of me"--You chose her over me, now she's with your best friend--It's too late to think of me
4. "My lover's gone" Her lover is dead and will never return.
5. "All you want"--She sings the Celtic "yelp" or yodel as it is called in the South
6. "Thank You"--My other favorite--"I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life, oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life"--Happiness in the messiness of life.
7. "Honestly OK"--Instruments are great: percussion, synthesizer with bubbly sounds like a person drowning in sadness: "I just want to feel safe in my own skin, I just want to be happy again"

11. "My life"--a Nora Jones kind of song--She sings of disappointment in her lover and says she is responsible for her own happiness.
12."Take my hand"--touch my skin and tell me what you're thinking. Lie down next to me, tell me how you're feeling. Has a full orchestral sound.

Dido's voice is an instrument as much as the instruments. Her instrument soothes, causes the face to let fall tears, smile, definitely sing along and relish in both sadness and happiness. Dido in Latin means "wanderer" and wandering we will go down this road of rich musicality and emotions.

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