Dido launched the album last Sept. 29. She put on an acoustic performance of her hit songs and cuts from Life for Rent before an audience of media people and some 600 contest winners at the Virgin Megastore in London. Then after spending an hour signing autographs and posing for pictures, she hied off to the airport to take a special plane christened Dido 1 especially for the event to go to New York. The same sequence of events was repeated in the US of A as Dido performed at the Virgin Megastore on Union Square before the media and 500 contest winners and then later signed autographs and posed for pictures.
I do not know if Dido took the late flight back to London but whatever she did, I am quite sure she had her fill of watching the two-city launch of her album in all the newscasts. The much-awaited word came early the next day. Life for Rent is a big hit. In fact it sold more than a hundred thousand copies on its first day out in the market in London. It instantly made number four in the US charts and has remained in the top 20 after seven weeks of release.
Now what makes Dido and Life for Rent so special that Arista Records would go out of its way to make the album launch so extraordinarily special? Well, No Angel, Dido’s first album released three years ago has already sold more than 12,000 copies. That is quite a feat for a newcomer. Take note though that listeners found large chunks of themselves in Dido’s simple songs rendered in her also simple but truly expressive style. Rapper Eminem sampled one of these songs Thank You in his disturbing tune Stan and even performed it at the Grammys as a duet with Elton John.
Then there is Life for Rent itself. Dido has lost the tentative quality that made No Angel so appealing but she has replaced this with a refreshing kind of confidence. This is a girl who knows what she wants and is able to articulate her feelings in her songs. The same attitude prevails with her music. The melodies are simple but are now presented with varied arrangements that range from pared-down musings Life for Rent and Mary’s in India to the multi-layered epic, See the Sun. Of course Dido performs all 11 cuts in her breathy, intimate and oh so-affecting style. Watch out, the twists and turns of her tales seem like mirrors or movie screens that play out bits and pieces of one’s life. We‘ve been through these before but it had to take Dido to remind us of those instances.
Now while the singles market of the US of A continues to be driven by rock and hip hop music, the album charts show a wider variety of products including mellower sounds from the new releases by Sarah McLachlan and Josh Groban. Here are the top 10: The Black Album by Jay-Z; Tupac: Resurrection the original soundtrack album: Beg for Mercy by G-Unit; Closer by Josh Groban; Shock’n Y’all by Toby Keith; Now 14 by Various Artists; Afterglow by Sarah McLachlan; Kid Rock by Kid Rock; Try This by Pink and The Very Best of Sheryl Crow by Sheryl Crow.