Dido
Girl Who Got Away

Dido, alias Dido Florian Cloud De Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong, is one of those pop stars who, after a couple of best-selling albums and a handful of chart-busting singles, slowly and quietly settle into the depths of lost memories. The English artist, a living incarnation of Nordic trip-hop turned mainstream soloist (not surprisingly, she is the sister of Rollo from the band Faithless), managed to give the music industry quite a few nostalgic songs in the early 2000s, driven especially by Eminem and the single lend-voice Stan, pieces with easy appeal, not at all cacophonic, sometimes maudlin and sugary but with a not insignificant passionate richness. No Angel and Life For Rent, accompanied by other hits such as Thank You, Hunter, White Flag (the latter an authentic anthem of melancholy autumn 2003) and Life For Rent practically conquered the British and European charts, even pushing through the anti-Old Continent skepticism of the Americans, often picky about overseas innovations and (once) spiritually and melodically bound to the gangsta-black culture. However, the millions collected with her debut and post-debut and the extraordinary resonance of the launch singles stalled in 2008 with the very quiet Safe Trip Home, an album devoid of an impactful hit (the lead Don't Leave Home didn't even get half the accolades of the past), as well as lacking the ability to reclaim a market and a criticism that had not seen Dido active and energetic since the distant 2003.

Similarly to other performers on the hunt for lost success after a brilliant debut, Dido tries to capture the favor of a completely confused mainstream scene with the fourth studio work Girl Who Got Away, a record that currently does not seem to have stirred anything in terms of charts, pre-charts, singles, previews, and excitement, also due to the artist's strange obstinacy in not rekindling the warm echo of productions from a decade ago. A pity, given that the album could earn the golden palm of the best "commercial" pop craftsmanship in the first triad of 2013: halfway between the historical reminiscences of No Angel and Life for Rent, valuable melodic-trip hop cauldrons with R&B and pop-rock flashes, and an innovative techno, trance, synthpop retro and even funky-folk vein, Girl Who Got Away is an excellent production, without excessive frills and similar sugary shortcomings, a rich résumé of catchy tunes, sometimes danceable, inspired and sincere, far from the "mixing" trend and equally remote from being a monosonorous concept album.

The album starts a bit understated with the very calm folk ballad No Freedom, chosen as a promotional single, but it quickly recovers with Let Us Move On, presented in collaboration with Kendrick Lamar, a classic of Dido's quiet-storm repertoire poised between hip-hop and sugary R&B, and with the title track Girl Who Got Away, featuring muffled synth sounds reminiscent of the ethereal Bjork in her less complex and cryptic productions. End of Night is the pearl of the album, an example of danceable electropop reminiscent of the 80s glories without trashy-glittered aberrations, followed closely by the enjoyable Go Dreaming, also set on simple and exquisite synthpop motifs. In Sitting on the Roof of the World, you encounter an instrumental piece, at the crossroads between country, folk, and ambient, while in Happy New Year and Loveless Hearts the beautiful Dido returns to the trip-hop glories of her debut. Finally, noteworthy is the bizarre Love To Blame, a sort of circus funk melody enclosed in a delicate electronic thread and yet another, albeit pleasant, reminiscence of 80s electronic ballads in Let's Runaway, the latter included in the deluxe edition.

It's a real shame that Dido's fourth effort is almost certainly susceptible to a new lukewarm and unsatisfying reception, forgetting the distant triumphs of No Angel and Life For Rent. I believe, without any shadow of a doubt, that Girl Who Got Away is the best pop album of the current year, even though it is closely followed by imminent new releases from mighty mainstream monuments like Justin Timberlake and Depeche Mode. Should we blame the "lazy" artist or the cynical major labels disinterested in fossilized residues of a past completely erased by the mortal fireworks of the end of the decade? Who can say. The music industry, especially the capital-attracting sector, is a giant entity pulled by absurdities, legends, masterpieces, and rubbish, and everything, but really everything, makes broth, even if made with radioactive wastes.

Dido, Girl Who Got Away

No Freedom - Girl Who Got Away - Let Us Move On - Blackbird - End of Night - Sitting On the Roof of the World - Love To Blame - Go Dreaming - Happy New Year - Loveless Hearts - Day Before We Went to War.