Track Listing

1. don't believe in love
2. quiet times
3. never want to say it's love
4. grafton street
5. it comes and it goes
6. look no further
7. us 2 little gods
8. the day before the day
9. let's do the things we normally do
10. burnin love
11. northern skies

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #670 in Music
• Brand: Arista
• Released on: 2008-11-18
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
This package includes 4 Dido postcards.

Amazon.com
(Amazon.co.uk Review) Safe Trip Home, the third album from singer-songwriter Dido, sees the chanteuse cook up a slightly different ambience than on previous albums No Angel (1999) and Life for Rent (2003). Though her signature elements remain in place--the limited, slightly cracked falsetto; the dreamy, comforting trip-hop vibe--there seems to be an extra density to Safe Trip Home, doubtless provoked by the loss of her father in 2006. The added weight is predominantly in the lyrics, which tend to focus on loss and heartache, but there's extra detail and depth in the musicianship too, since Dido has been busy honing her skills as a multi-instrumentalist. Despite the denser themes, the music still drifts by in classic Dido style, moving smoothly through the insouciant “Don't Believe in Love", the aptly titled “Quiet Times", and “Never Want to Say It's Love", before arriving at the somber-yet-elegant six-minute standout “Grafton Street", co-written with Brian Eno and featuring Mick Fleetwood on drums. The rest of the album unfurls in similarly sophicticated fashion, featuring the folkish “Look No Further", the upbeat “Us 2 Little Gods", and a nine-minute poetic closer called “Northern Skies". Put simply, Safe Trip Home is Dido in superlative form. --Danny McKenna

About the Artist
Safe Trip Home is the warm, moving, and wonderfully musical third album from Dido, the London-born singer-songwriter with the cracked-crystal voice. The first, you might remember, was No Angel, a record made when Dido was a part-time backing singer with a tiny budget and no label. When that record's heartfelt snap-shots of life were released in 1999, nobody, least of all Dido, expected the album to eventually become the planet's biggest seller of 2001. The similarly affecting follow-up, 2003's Life For Rent, also burrowed its way into millions of hearts, hitting number one in 26 countries and lighting up the airwaves in many more. By the time Dido had toured that record around the world, she was ready for a bit of a breather.

"It was a whirlwind," she says. "When I got back from touring early in 2005, it took a while just to take in what had happened. I was so unprepared for it. As far as I was concerned I was making this little underground record for me to listen to and then, suddenly, eight years later I was getting off this incredible speeding train. I'd had an amazing time, but I guess I needed to take a step back, reconnect with normal life and bring the focus 100 percent back to music."

Although she disappeared from view, Dido took very little time off from music. However, rather than immediately starting to write new songs, she threw herself into playing, whether it be her music or others people's. "I wanted to take some time to become a better musician," she explains. "For the first two albums, any playing I'd done had been used purely for songwriting, which is very different from just playing for fun, like I had as a child. So I spent a lot of time just picking up instruments for playing's sake again. I loved it."

Dido had inadvertently set the tone for Safe Trip Home, a record whose smouldering, soulful songs were to eventually feature her playing guitar, piano, bells and the trusty old recorder she'd toured Europe with as a prodigious pupil of London's Guildhall School of Music. She's even responsible for some of the album's drums (most notably on the sumptuously melancholy Quiet Times).

When Dido met up with producer, Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Kayne West, Rufus Wainwright, Eels) at London's Abbey Road studios towards the end of 2005, he was blown away by her musicianship. "I realised she had this beautiful feel for playing from the first day I met her," he says. "In fact, if there's anything I'm particularly proud of with this record, it's encouraging Dido to play more instruments. When she plays drums, her groove is magnificent. And her touch on piano is absolutely stunning."

"Jon persuaded me to go out to LA and do some writing," says Dido. "We had this brilliant few weeks working together. It felt like I could try anything I wanted, with whatever instrument I wanted. That was really the start of the album." Songs like the sensuous "Never Want To Say It's Love" and the string-soaked "Let’s Do the Things We Normally Do" were two of several tracks to emerge from those productive sessions.

Buoyed by that initial progress, Dido decided to relocate to LA for a while to continue working with Brion on the album. It was a city ripe with opportunities, whether that be the potential for long drives into the desert listening to music, the amazing vocal sound in Brion's broom cupboard, the chance to get Citizen Cope in to sing on the gorgeous Burnin Love, or the fact that Dido's favourite drummer Mick Fleetwood was on hand to play on Grafton Street, the plaintive album highlight she'd written with another inspiration, Brian Eno.

"I wasn't actually a big fan of LA before," she admits, "but it turned out to be an amazing place to follow through an idea and keep going without anyone saying you're being completely ridiculous. It's a city built on imagination, story-telling and creativity. Plus, everyone seems to go to bed at 9 p.m., so I'd get a lot done at night."

Dido's musical experimentation also extended to learning more about the actual mechanics of recording. "I was very impressed by that," says Brion. "It would be a very easy life for her to allow people to make stuff for her to sing on and I think it's more than a little bit admirable that she is so inquisitive about everything. She learned a ton about engineering, about arranging, about mastering, about the construction of music. She even went and took some music courses at UCLA. This is not the thing the average person who's just looking to crank it out does."

Indeed, rather than rushing to get the album done, Dido was happy to take her time. "I didn't really feel any urgency to stop writing," she says. "In fact, when I'd finished all the stuff with Jon in LA, I came back to England and realised I really wanted to start using all the things I'd learned there. So I sat down at my kitchen table with my laptop and a microphone and just started writing and recording, using a new computer programme I'd got. I ended up with a whole load more songs."

One afternoon, Dido's brother Rollo, who co-wrote and co-produced her first two albums, came round for tea, so she played him a bunch of the new songs. "He got really excited about them, so we decided to go into the studio with them. But a lot of the recordings on the album actually came from that time in my kitchen. If you listen closely, you can hear my neighbours drilling or the rain pelting down outside."

"I really think this album has benefitted from its gestation period," says Rollo. "I think Dido has gone on a musical journey with it. She'd ring me from LA and say, "I'm recording vocals in an echo chamber!" or "we're busy reversing 200 strings we just recorded!". She was obviously having so much fun. But, for all that, the songs on this album still channel Dido's amazing ability to move people with melodies and lyrics. There's never any pretension on a Dido record. I think the words supposed to say what they mean but in a way that's not clichéd."

"Frankly, I don't believe what most people are singing about when I hear their records," says Brion. "I hear, 'I want attention, I want to be famous, I want you to think I'm smart'. But with Dido, I know she isn't kidding. I hear her in her lyrics. Take away any preconceptions and you'll hear that her words are a hotbed of truth. It's no surprise to me that so many people all over the world have connected with her."

Dido's softly-expressed thoughts, parables, feelings, hopes and concerns flow unfettered from Safe Trip Home. It is a record of love and loss, strength and surrender, highs and lows. And, as with her previous two albums, Dido shows an astonishing knack for extracting life's universals from its little details.

"Dido bares her heart in her music in a way that she doesn't in any other public domain," says Rollo. "I think the key with her records is the idea that it all goes from Dido to the listener in the most straightforward, emotionally honest way. It's like an emotional A to B with as little interference from me as a producer."

"I still manage to get into this headspace when I'm writing where I completely forget that anyone's going to hear the songs," admits Dido. "And then, of course, just before I release it, I start to get a little bit freaked out because I've poured so much of myself into it. I don't really draw any limits for what I put in the songs, emotionally. Some of these songs are about general themes and some are about other people's lives, but some are specific and personal to me. Maybe I leave myself exposed, but I find it hard to do anything that isn't emotional or doesn't move me in some way. I'm far less likely to sit down and tell someone painstaking details of my life than I am to put it all in a song. But by not explaining my lyrics to people, it actually gives me the freedom to express myself without limits in the songs."

That, as much as anything, is what makes Safe Trip Home such a rewarding listen. "This album is full of the joy of making music," says Dido. "The process of making it has been a wonderful experience, something to totally cherish. I've put every emotion into these songs. And now I just really hope they move people." It's hard to imagine that they won't.

Customer Reviews

Different - But Just as Strong.
Though Dido still sounds unmistakably like herself on her new album it is still obviously very different from her first two. Though some tunes are actually very melodic and catchy, don't expect to find big radio hits like "White Flag" or "Life for Rent".

The tone is generally darker, and many of the songs lyrically deal with theme of loss. Though some fans may be disappointed with Dido's new direction, I'm sure she will win new fans with this new record, which really shows the versatile artist she really is.

The first track "Don't Believe in Love" which has been chosen for the first single off the album, has been hailed by many as one of the best tracks - I don't agree. It's a funky track with a good beat, but it really doesn't have a very memorable melody.

In my view the next song "Quiet Times" is much stronger. It's an acoustic melodic song and for me one of several highlights on the album; though probably no good choice for a single.

"Never Want to Say it's Love" is a bluesy and cathcy tune, which I would seriosly have considered for a single - brings forward memories of the late Dusty Springfield.

"Grafton Street" is one of the key songs on the album. It's a dark and sad song, with some great Celtic sounds adding a lot of atmosphere to the great tune.

"It Comes and it Goes" is a lighter song and another track that may lead your thoughts towards Dusty Springfield og Burt Bacharach.

"Look No Further" was the first song to be released for download and it stands out as one of greatest tracks on the album. It has some of the beautiful simplicity as some of John Lennon's finest songs ( like "Imagine" or "Jealous Guy" ).

"Us 2 Little Gods" is an acoustic upbeat song, that probably a song that the sounds the most like her earlier songs.

"The Day Before the Day" is another sad quiet song dealing with theme of losing one you love. A very moving song.

"The Things we Normally Do" is a catchy melodic tune. A great original string arrangement - makes think of Suzanne Vega and her "Nine Objects of Desire" album.

"Burning Love" is another nice acoustic song, but probably the least memorable song on the album.

The closing track, the grandiose "Northern Skies" is another key track. Playing for almost 9 minutes it is a logical choice to close the album. A haunting tune that makes me think of the great late Sandy Denny - it really sounds like a song she could have written.

On the Deluxe version of the album there 3 more tracks that all are great additions.

"For One Day" is a funky track that would have fitted nicely into the album - a little in the same vein as "I Don't Believe in Love".

"Summer" is a great acoustic song that for incomprehensively reasons was not selected for the album.

The shorter version of "Northern Skies" is at least as strong as the long version - and nice to have this shorter version too.

A very commendable album.

Her Best Yet
I purchased No Angel 2 days after it came out in 1999. Back then, no one had heard of Dido. It took about a year before she even had a sizable fan base. And then with a combination of Here With Me's appearance on Roswell and Eminem's sampling of "Thank You" her career exploded.

Since then, being a Dido fan has had it's ups and downs. The downs mostly consist of the long wait between albums. Long waits can be good for artists. It gives them a chance to live a normal life so they don't end up writing songs about things that are boring to most other people (like songs about touring or trying to write songs, for instance.) The down side is that expectations can be raised through the roof.

The problem with the latter, in the instance of Safe Trip Home, is that this album isn't really about first impressions. On a first listen, the album can be listened to without any one thing really striking you. It's pleasant and pretty but it can sort of go in one ear and out the other. Some people may never get past this step. This is usually a problem for me. Not that I want an album full of pop hits, but I do like at least a few songs that hook me right away.

But this isn't that type of album. For one thing, it very much feels like a complete unit. Dido comes back to the same themes again and again. The predominant ones seem to be death and love on this one. Some people might call it repetitive, but she never tackles them in the same way and dealing with the same themes isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, as long as you're saying something new. And in fact many of the songs can be read in a variety of ways if you don't just rely on Dido's bio info.

The thing that might surprise some is how the album works it's way into your brain. It only took a couple repeat listens before I realized I was often humming parts of songs. The album reveals itself as more layered and complex then you might imagine on a first listen. I keep finding little things I missed before. I realize there's a greater emotional and tonal range then I first realized. I do miss having a real roof-raiser like Take My Hand on it, but Northern Skies is a lovely, more measured ending to the album.

Dido's voice is the best it's ever been. It's incredibly confident - at the front of the songs, and relating emotion in a measured way rather then having to shrilly belt it out like some wannabe diva.

As for individual songs, Don't Believe in Love, Grafton Street, It Comes and It Goes, Burnin' Love and The Day Before Today are definite standouts.

I'd definitely recommend spending a little extra on the deluxe version. "For One Day" is an amazing song that is far catchier then it's subject matter might suggest.

So far the critics seem to love this one, and the general public seems to be a little mixed about it. I think, given time, people will see this for the masterpiece it is.

Hauntingly beautiful and emotional.
Dido's previous two albums, "No Angel" (1999) and "Life For Rent" (2003), sold an astonishing 21 million copies in total.
Only her third album in nine years, "Safe Trip Home" somehow distils the essence of Dido even further.
Dido has been taking some time to mature, both musically and emotionally.
Where "Life For Rent" was a series of snapshots from the life of a newly single girl , "Safe Trip Home" is overwhelmingly coloured by the death at the end of 2006 of her father.
The renowned producer Jon Brion (who has worked extensively with Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple and Rufus Wainwright), and her brother and long-time collaborator co-producer Rollo Armstrong know how to make the most of a distinctive vocal talent.
On first acquaintance, it is almost sombre, such is the understatement of her arrangements.
She has reined back on the electronics, with more real instrumentation. Even with a band playing silkily syncopated grooves, often underpinned by lush orchestration, the overall effect is one of quiet stillness.
Her musical palette may have embraced the soft sounds of ambient electronics and the flowing melodiousness of folk, but she has a real gift for conveying simple, emotional truth with deceptively artful songs and the touching purity of her gentle, aching vocals.
Her songs are about everyday experiences and relationships. These mostly deal with loss: of lovers, of time, of a more hopeful younger self, and also of Dido's father, who died in 2006.
It's potentially affecting stuff, and the gentleness of the production - several songs sound as though they were recorded by candlelight - heightens the atmosphere of desolation and fragility.
The album, as you'd expect, stays to her tried and tested formula of minimalism, ennui and trademark pathos - from the opening emptiness of "Don't Believe In Love" to the brooding closer of "Northern Skies" - driven by a club-heavy bass line, and adorned with bubbly keyboard trills - there's barely a chink of smiling light to be found in the dark opus.
The outstanding song of the album is the piercingly beautiful, Celtic-flavoured "Grafton Street", a six-minute hymn to loss co-written with Brian Eno and featuring Mick Fleetwood on drums. Listen to it once and it will catch at your heart as a wrenching lament for a lover who will not return.
The deceptively relaxed 'Burnin' Love' sets Dido's delicate tones against the warm, crackling vocal of Citizen Cope, a Brooklyn-based guitarist, DJ and keyboard player, bringing the best out of an affecting melody.
On "Look No Further", she lays out the credentials that have endeared her to so many - spurning the high life that's surely within her grasp, she conjures a classically-cushioned, mellow beat-driven vision of hearth and home.
Most affecting is "Let's Do The Things We Normally Do", "from your rebel songs sung out of tune, so my hand held longer than you need to".
It is simply as fond as farewells can get.
Dido plays keyboards, drums and/or guitar on most of the tracks.
My favourite tracks: "Let's Do The Things We Normally Do", "Burnin' Love", "Grafton Street", and "Northern Skies", co-written with Rollo.

Life for Rent
No Angel