Album Review: Dido – Greatest Hits
4 min read
While pop superstar Dido only releases studio albums every four years or so, it really feels like Christmas has come twice this year already with the singer-songwriter and White Flag hit-maker offering us not one but two releases this year – quite the rarity indeed. Okay, so the 2nd of the two releases is a Greatest Hits collection but still – this is Dido and releases from the pint-sized starlet are few and far between so let’s just take a moment to bask in the glory of a double record whammy for a while!
Earlier in the year Dido released one of the best records of her career to date – the immaculate Girl Who Got Away. The record propelled her right back to her peak song-writing heights and vocal best, delivering an album that was much more varied, in terms of tempo, to her previous 2008 album, Safe Trip Home. There weren’t too many singles released from that record and so the singers third album doesn’t get much of a mention on this new career retrospective compared to her earlier efforts and the latest released which is still being plugged.
Having a career that has spanned over a decade is an accomplish in itself but add a dozen hits over each studio release into the mix and a Greatest Hits collection quickly seems much more of an appealing idea and it is the perfect time to put that thinking into action as the singer has done with the release of her own.
Dido’s Greatest Hits contains all the hits that you would expect to see within this sort of collection for the Brit and all of the hits that have made Dido a household name. Early career monsters like her debut, Here With Me and Hunter open the record as well as Thank You, the track that made the singer an international star when rap icon Eminem sampled the track within his global mega-hit Stan back in 2000, a track that Dido has also included near the end of her Greatest Hits.
Dido’s second record, Life For Rent gets a good nod with the singles White Flag, still one of the best pennings of her career in my opinion, the records title track, Don’t Leave Home and Sand In My Shoes.
While her third studio record featured Dido at her most sentimental and sombre, Safe Trip Home’s contributions to the this Greatest Hits collection include the gorgeous Grafton Street, previously not released as a single but thrown into this record for good measures, as well as singles Quiet Times and Don’t Believe In Love.
Girl Who Got Away, the singers 4th studio album releases in March this year offers several hits with Let Us Move On, No Freedom and the incredible End of Night all finding a home here.
As well as a long career producing her own studio albums, Dido has often teamed up with brother Rollo and his dance outfit Faithless on several occasions over the years. Her finest effort with the dance trio is One Step Too Far which follows the singer’s album singles on this collection.
To break up the studio album singles, soundtrack hits Everything To Lose from the Sex and the City 2 soundtrack and her Academy Award nominated collaborative effort with producer A.R Rahman, If I Rise, a track featured in the James Franco film, 127 Hours.
Closing this retrospective is a brand new offering from the star in the shape of NYC. Paying tribute to one of the greatest cities on the planet, NYC is an up-tempo track with various spacey effects fluttering in the background of this token new penning. The track has a very catchy chorus and encapsulates various elements from each of the singer’s records resulting in a nostalgic and familiar yet fresh hit for the singer.
This is a really fantastic Greatest Hits record for one of the music industry’s biggest players and serves Dido well as a fine retrospective and a must have collection for music lovers. My recommendation would be to go that extra step and invest in the Deluxe Edition of this record as the bonus disc comes packed with remixes of various Dido career highlights.
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