Dido - c/d?

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Obviously this question has been debated in the past, but now she's not the exciting new chanteuse du lowest common denominator but an established artiste who's moved well beyond bete noire status, what do people actually think of her and her ilk nowadays? And what she represents?

(stimulated by an argument with the ultra-reasonable and invincible Jonnie in the pub last night - I want to see if others can put my rage into perspective and/or better words)

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:40 (twenty years ago) link

new single shit, last one tolerable.

all the nasty cliches abt chardonnay-swilling chick-lit fans liking ver 'do are true, IME. and you can't argue with experience.

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:45 (twenty years ago) link

I like her new album. I'm 34.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:47 (twenty years ago) link

Her constant attempts to be 'controversial' just seem so forced.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:47 (twenty years ago) link

Dido attempts to be controversial?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:48 (twenty years ago) link

She was a very reasonable queen too.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:49 (twenty years ago) link

controversially dull

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:49 (twenty years ago) link

hahahaha! are you on crack, sir?

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:49 (twenty years ago) link

actually i don't find her nearly as dull as some people do. but then i also listen to beautiful south and feeder records

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:49 (twenty years ago) link

She couldn't look more bland if she planed off all her facial features. This makes me dislike her all the more.

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:50 (twenty years ago) link

much as i would love to take some sort of contrarian pro-dido stance here, i really can't be arsed, she's dulldulldull...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:52 (twenty years ago) link

It's amazing how few of her songs I can actually think of - there's White Flag, and Here With Me, and the one sampled on Stan.

I can completely understand why millions of people like her, it's the unthreatening niceness, the complete lack of purpose other than "please like me" which also winds so many people up. I don't understand why she enrages people so much (see also Coldplay or Travis or whoever).

I find it strange that there are Dido haterz who would be willing to defend Will Young's recent output. They're the same thing, surely?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:53 (twenty years ago) link

Yes, originality alone does not constitute genius, so I'd say dud also.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:53 (twenty years ago) link

Is there no-one who wants to rant?

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:58 (twenty years ago) link

What's the point? Why does this bother you?

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:58 (twenty years ago) link

In a way, she's a bit like Belle and Sebastian...

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 6 February 2004 10:58 (twenty years ago) link

i admire mark at k-punk for finding some positive things to say about her - scroll down a bit, it's somewhere in the january archive.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 6 February 2004 11:01 (twenty years ago) link

Well, what's to rant about? Posh bird sings dull songs. End of. Even my mum, an admirer of 'No Angel', thinks she'd bawrin now. I actually think 'White Flag' (song) better than anything on the new Strokes LP, ie, although I'd never buy either, I'm more likely to touch that radio dial if the Strokes come on than if Dido comes on.

How is she like B&S?!

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:01 (twenty years ago) link

oh matt, you card.

(enrique, he's just trying to get a rise out of Mark)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:01 (twenty years ago) link

Well, I spose she's an emotional comfort blanket same way B&S are, but for a different, less consciously 'outsider' demographic. (I like old-B&S, sorta.)

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:03 (twenty years ago) link

She has a pretty face, a funny talking voice and a pretty good singing voice. I liked it on the Faithless stuff. Of course I think her stuff is pretty dreary most of the time now but still feel like saying classic because a) look how much money she's made! b) 'Stan' was fantastic the first time I heard it and c) i think my Mum likes her

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:07 (twenty years ago) link

must be freudian that i said 'pretty' three times there

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:08 (twenty years ago) link

aye, buffness counts 'for'. i dunno that earning money a classic makes though.

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:09 (twenty years ago) link

The hidden track on the second CD is unexpectastic.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:10 (twenty years ago) link

I like my music HARD and DARK, like my fucking soul.

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:12 (twenty years ago) link

the last time i took an interest in her was within a faithless album and even it's been relegated to the kicking-round-the-floor scratched-to-buggery part of my CD collection these days.

― ipsofacto (ipsofacto), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:13 (twenty years ago) link

The hidden track is a cover of Grindin', Enrique.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:13 (twenty years ago) link

i agree that it seems daft to call Dido dull/bland and Will Young not

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:13 (twenty years ago) link

For serious? Any good?

xposty

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:19 (twenty years ago) link

Simon Amstell on Popworld described her as 'the easy listening witch'.

I don't think she's either C or D. Perhaps there should be a category for stuff that isn't good enough to be classic or offensive enough to be marked dud, stuff that just makes no impact either way. A third way: bland.

Frou Frou = Dido's younger, slightly more adventurous sister.

― Alfie (Alfie), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:38 (twenty years ago) link

literally?

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:45 (twenty years ago) link

hahahaha! a girl i'd like to meet.

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:46 (twenty years ago) link

No, no - the girl out of Frou Frou is called Imogen Heap - if she were Dido's sister then she'd be called Rubdowns Himalaya Lushest Batman Armstrong.

― Alfie (Alfie), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:49 (twenty years ago) link

ok i like dido hehe even if u dont haha

― Emma williams (Emma williams), Friday, 6 February 2004 21:33 (twenty years ago) link

of course the best thing about dido is her brother being heir to the albanian throne...

it must be true pete told me, eh matt?

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 6 February 2004 21:40 (twenty years ago) link

She's okay, wouldn't buy her albums, doesn't anger me in any shape or form. I find Jamie Callum and this new jazz singer thing to be way more irksome.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:16 (twenty years ago) link

How about JOSS STONE????

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:18 (twenty years ago) link

The video with blubbery Boreanz is classic because I find it hysterically funny that she's supposed to be pining over this hobo-looking schlump.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:18 (twenty years ago) link

Haha Nicole, I am now imagining Dido singing "Rosa Parks"!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:19 (twenty years ago) link

That Dido video with Angle is like the second best video of all time, it works on so many levels. I saw Joss Stone's video today, but the sound was turned off.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:22 (twenty years ago) link

The best video of all time being that Dru Hill one about a fire, it's pretty sad :(

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:24 (twenty years ago) link

http://www.totallydavidboreanazuk.com/MiscPics/Dido/Dido-006.jpg

Hobo!

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:27 (twenty years ago) link

he's so stylish!

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:34 (twenty years ago) link

I haven't been drinking.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:43 (twenty years ago) link

I quite like Dido except for that song 'I Want to Be a Hunter Again' because it makes her sound sexually predatory.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Saturday, 7 February 2004 12:21 (twenty years ago) link

She makes Everything But the Girl sound like Throbbing Gristle.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 7 February 2004 12:25 (twenty years ago) link

I remember that there was a double bill of her and Travis that packed out a local arena near here. Insomniacs were the audience, I guess.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 7 February 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago) link

I'm a sometime insomniac and there's no way in hell I'd go unless there was a chance of a stage invasion!

― Barima (Barima), Saturday, 7 February 2004 19:54 (twenty years ago) link

I kinda liked the Insomniacs but why would they be at a Travisido show?

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 7 February 2004 20:00 (twenty years ago) link

Well, they had this one good single on Estrus.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 7 February 2004 20:01 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 61 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

The boyfriend is called Jim. From what I can see, purely for the purpose of this rhyme:

"Jim's in the garden, he looks like Bin Laden, but without the beard."

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:06 (twenty years ago) link

Mary's In India Lyrics

Danny is lonely cos Mary's in India now
She said she'd call but that was three weeks ago
She left all her things well, her books and her letters from him
And as the sun rises on Mary, it sets on him

Just dance, just drink and just see the things I probably never get a chance to see

Danny's not eating, he's drinking and sleeping in
I saw him last night at a party, he's definitely thin
He says he's happy, he looked pretty good but I think
That as the sun rises on Mary, it sets on him
Just dance, just drink and just see the things I probably never get the chance to say

Danny came over last night and I cooked for him
We talked about you Mary and how much we loved you still
He told me he's packed up your books and your letters and things
And as the sun sets on Mary, it's rising on him
And we danced and we drank and I've seen some things
you probably never got the chance to see
Don't worry, Mary cos I'm taking care of Danny
And he's taking care of me

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:09 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe it works better 'in context'. Like my g/f and I died laughing reading some Kate Bush lyrics yesterday, but we still dig the songs.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:11 (twenty years ago) link

Truely heartbreaking. Danny is so lonely.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:14 (twenty years ago) link

(I've been trying to add a Z axis, so we can add another variable but it just becomes unfathomable.)

http://ilxor.petfield.com/images/bland_graph_3d.gif

― Alfie (Alfie), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:14 (twenty years ago) link

brilliant!

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:15 (twenty years ago) link

Ah but whither Beverly Knight? Or for that matter, Betty Boo?

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:18 (twenty years ago) link

Where is r&b/urban on this. Surely that should be one of the axes.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:19 (twenty years ago) link

Actually, Alicia Keys is so necesary here.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:19 (twenty years ago) link

Best clam down though, or all we'll end up with is some nifty cross-hatching with the words...ii ..ino..u.e vaguely visible

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:26 (twenty years ago) link

Ok, suggestions for the axes please.
Average age of target audience (as Steve put it: AOR to YOR)

― Alfie (Alfie), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:28 (twenty years ago) link

X = number of appearances in Daily Telegraph

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:32 (twenty years ago) link

x= poison of choice, heroin on left axis to a cup of tea on right
y=likelihood of being played in a Dorothy Perkins changing

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:37 (twenty years ago) link

Ha, should be...

x= poison of choice; heroin on left axis to a cup of tea on right

y=likelihood of being played in a Dorothy Perkins changing room

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:37 (twenty years ago) link

These graphs are amazing.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:38 (twenty years ago) link

z=likelihood of being in a Dorothy Perkins Changing room

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:38 (twenty years ago) link

curse you all, I've got white flag going round and round in my head, and I fear I'm humming snippets out loud in the office. Thank god we've got workmen in drilling so no-one can hear me.

― Vicky (Vicky), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:43 (twenty years ago) link

Graph smarph. Back the original question for a moment. Let's agree, for the purposes of the argument, that Dido is indeed bland. I do find it really odd how people seem to get more wound up by bland things than by in your face irritating ones. How anyone could get angry about Dido is beyond my ken.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:44 (twenty years ago) link

The bitch ran over my cat.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:45 (twenty years ago) link

She stole my best girlie

(x-post)

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:46 (twenty years ago) link

Indeed. I have 'White Flag' in my head right now, not for the4 first time, and it really isn't that fuckin' bad, compared with other long-term stuck in my head songs (recently 'PIMP' and 'Shut Up', unfortunately for me).

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:46 (twenty years ago) link

The only way it makes sense to me is if you're some redfaced PASSION obsessive.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:47 (twenty years ago) link

beyond my ken.

Is it also beyond our Ken?

I have flipping Scissor Sisters and that godawful 'Somebody to Love' cover in my head now. From Saturday night watching crap pop videos. Aaaaaargh I can still see the stupid electric eels in the Scissor Sisters video.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:49 (twenty years ago) link

i was going to add the omitted line 'now Mary's got the shits after traipsing round Calcutta' but then i accidentally kicked the reset button on my PC with my right foot

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:57 (twenty years ago) link

'might have been the ghee they use instead of butter'

― Alfie (Alfie), Monday, 9 February 2004 14:59 (twenty years ago) link

"As the soon rises, on Mary, she fouls her pants"

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 9 February 2004 15:07 (twenty years ago) link

people who get angry about successful bland bands are just jealous. being "overrated" is such a crap way to judge anything. something mediocre that gets heralded as AMAZING is still better than something crap that is universally known as crap.

Unjustifiably criticising something as AWFUL when it's in fact just mediocre is no more accurate, and possibly more annoying than over-hyping something that isn't great.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 9 February 2004 15:30 (twenty years ago) link

On Dido's album of the same name, ''White Flag'' is a strong song, but the lyric's elegant negotiation between guilt and surrender is neutered by the polite production. Timbaland's version turns the whine into a genuine ache. Isolated, Dido's voice is gorgeous, roughed-up but sweet: ''There will be no white flag above my door/I'm in love and always will be.'' Timbaland may have been hired simply to repackage Dido's music, but the song has been served. A man who has never studied an instrument is being paid many thousands of dollars to improve on the work of a busload of professional musicians. Pop opens many doors and this is one: a great record can knock any paradigm out of shape, if only for three minutes.

― Enribaland (Enrique), Monday, 9 February 2004 16:57 (twenty years ago) link

WUH?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 9 February 2004 16:58 (twenty years ago) link

According to SFJ's artickle in the NYT, Timbo is remixing 'White Flag'.

― Phenrique (Enrique), Monday, 9 February 2004 17:01 (twenty years ago) link

"gorgeous", haha.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 9 February 2004 17:02 (twenty years ago) link

END TIMES

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 9 February 2004 17:03 (twenty years ago) link

Sash gets lotsa love on ILM. I can't say that article has won me over. But I suppose NYT pays a bit better than VV, so hey...

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 9 February 2004 17:04 (twenty years ago) link

haha i thought at first Enribaland said "a great record can knock any DIAPHRAGMS out of shape"!!

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 9 February 2004 17:14 (twenty years ago) link

but only for 3 minutes

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 9 February 2004 17:21 (twenty years ago) link

Further to the reference to Jo Whiley's changing taste in music, doesn't most peoples? Or do DJs owe it to their fans to keep playing the same old shit (yes, Lamacq, I'm talking about you)? Anyway, I always thought Whiley's music choice was pretty mainstream, except for her attempts to be into whatever the current NME/MM trend was (this generally lasted as long as the inkies said it was OK). Which is kind of indie mainstream I guess. Her current enthusiasm for the Darkness seems no stranger than her past enthusiasm for, say, Menswear.

Mind you, I don't like Missy Elliott, so I know jack shit about real music apparently.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 9 February 2004 18:39 (twenty years ago) link

I heard 'White Flag' again this morning. I think the 'bland' analysis is inadequate: while the music is bland, the lyrical content isn't exactly; ver 'do is often alluding to non-bland type behaviour (in 'White Flag' she's left hella 'mess and destruction' and advises against living by 'the rules'; she claims that her life is 'for rent'; she wants to be 'a hunter' -- do you see?). But the music is all bland, yes. It's a dichotomy thang.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 14:23 (twenty years ago) link

Is there an easy definition of bland music. Ie more harmonics, clasical chord progressions, being in tune, not too loud. I wonder if you were to play Dido really loudly (the non-bland extreme being its loudness) if it would sound better.

I think White Flag was a triffic single, and Life For Rent speaks directly (perhaps a touch too cynically) to the late tewnties renting masses in London.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 14:27 (twenty years ago) link

N. is v OTM above.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 14:28 (twenty years ago) link

i've listened to some of the new Zero 7 album and it's likely to attract the same 'blandness' criticism as Dido's material, although i would point out that musically 'When It Falls' is somewhere between Dido and Air, leaning towards the latter in terms of sophisticated musical and melodic arrangements albeit with only sporadic flirtations with sonic psychedelia, surrealism and similar concepts but featuring a much more pedestrian approach to actual songwriting ala Dido.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 14:30 (twenty years ago) link

I think Pete's right about 'White Flag'. The blandness is a relative thing: Dido's first LP is sorta trip-hoppy (it was recorded in what? 1998) but with the ruff edges taken out. On 'Stan' the ruffness was actually added, the Portishead record hiss, etc. I dunno abt this LP, it seems less 'trip hop'.

Not sure about the 'late twenties' renting etcness -- esp coming from financially secure Dido! But I feel yr pain.

― ENRQ (Enrique), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 14:33 (twenty years ago) link

Bland - definition = UB40s "Swing Low Sweet Chariot". Everything about it is designed not to cause offence - everything mid-tempo, mid-pitch, nothing standing out, vaguely in keeping with the pereception of what the people who buy records want to hear.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 16:04 (twenty years ago) link

what does 'Life For Rent' mean anyway?

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 17:22 (twenty years ago) link

BIG PIMPIN

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 17:23 (twenty years ago) link

I hear her a lot on R2. I don't think I like her records much. But I don't hate them either; hate can be reserved for other things.

I have heard her... 'speaking voice' and been turned off.

I think Markelby's question is good.

― the bellefox, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 17:27 (twenty years ago) link

I'd be more annoyed by Coldplay, nobody treats Dido as some form of high culture/spiritual experience. I dislike the way Dido slating is so often an outlet for a sort of hatred of women, not here really but in music discussions more generally.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 22:12 (twenty years ago) link

damn their high heels/standards

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 22:14 (twenty years ago) link

Someone upthread said Dido had covered 'Grindin''. I said: Any cop? Now i'm thinking they were trying to get a rise outta me. Is it true? Did she really? Ma, it don't get more coffee table than this.

― ENRK (Enrique), Monday, 16 February 2004 11:19 (twenty years ago) link

Dido : Fading 35 y/o women
50 Cent : 16 y/o suburban boys.

The identity, problems, struggles of fantasy false self. [/pop-psych bs]

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 16 February 2004 19:52 (twenty years ago) link

twelve years pass...

"thank you" is 100% CLASSIC

― flappy bird, Thursday, 25 August 2016 05:04 (seven years ago) link

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