Do you know the song "Sand In My Shoes"?<\/p>\n
It starts with an ethereal figure, like something off the great "Moon Safari" by Air, then slowly penetrates the atmosphere, comes down to Earth with an acoustic guitar and Dido starts to sing:<\/p>\n
Two weeks away it feels like the world should’ve changed <\/span> Have you ever been on vacation and pondered what you’ve missed at home?\u00c2\u00a0 And then get back and find out nothing’s changed, and wanted to immediately jet back to your vacation location?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what "Sand In My Shoes" is about.\u00c2\u00a0 But with the added twist of wanting to connect with that person you thought was a fling but now realize might be real, maybe even the love of your life.\u00c2\u00a0 When Dido sings "I want to see you again" her almost whisper-like voice becomes emphatic, you’re reminded of every love connection you’ve ever had, when your feelings, your desires, have been mirrored.<\/p>\n I didn’t get into "Life For Rent" via "Sand In My Shoes".\u00c2\u00a0 "White Flag" brought me there.\u00c2\u00a0 I wasn’t a Dido fan, but driving my mother’s Lexus in November 2004 on a week-long journey to clean out my possessions from the family home which my mom was finally abandoning, I heard "White Flag" on the radio incessantly.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d been listening to the satellite for almost two years, I was not used to this repetition.\u00c2\u00a0 By the second weekend, I was hooked.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I got back to L.A., I searched through hundreds of CDs until I found Dido’s latest opus.<\/p>\n There are so many great cuts on "Life For Rent".\u00c2\u00a0 The title track ponders one’s future.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you miss out if you never make commitments?\u00c2\u00a0 If you haven’t had the relationship in "See You When You’re 40", you’ve never been involved with a man with Peter Pan syndrome, and they’re rampant.\u00c2\u00a0 "See The Sun" is great.\u00c2\u00a0 But "Sand In My Shoes" is brilliant.<\/p>\n The album’s lyrics contain the intimacy, the wisdom of a woman.\u00c2\u00a0 These aren’t platitudes, but insights, and truth.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s been years since I’ve encountered these in such a sleek, attractive package.\u00c2\u00a0 "Life For Rent" is a modern day Joni Mitchell album.<\/p>\n So you can imagine how much I’ve been looking forward to Dido’s new record.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been waiting for four years.\u00c2\u00a0 My heart’s been aching.\u00c2\u00a0 And finally a release date was set and a single was released.\u00c2\u00a0 Which was not as good as "White Flag".\u00c2\u00a0 "Look No Further" took too long to reach the hook, it was a dirge, but with strangely happy lyrics.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t exactly bad, but it wasn’t magic.\u00c2\u00a0 I was disappointed, but I still had hope.<\/p>\n I no longer have hope.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m drenched in disappointment.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve listened to Dido’s new album "Safe Trip Home" and I’m deflated.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just not the same Dido.<\/p>\n There are certain sacred cows in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 One is Jon Brion.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re supposed to love him, he’s so talented, a genius.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll say if he’s so great, how come there’s never been a commercial breakthrough?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an insider’s game.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is fine, but now he’s treaded in my territory.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t say he’s ruined the new Dido album, but his production is second-rate compared to the one employed on the first two albums.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of English electronic, it’s merely at times ethereal.\u00c2\u00a0 Dido’s voice is up front and center.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is an utter mistake.\u00c2\u00a0 She used to be in the mix.\u00c2\u00a0 A perfect place for someone with little projection, someone whose voice is just a couple of steps above a whisper.\u00c2\u00a0 Jon Brion has made an early Joni Mitchell record, sparse, with Dido featured, whereas her previous records were aural landscapes which we luxuriated in.\u00c2\u00a0 I think that’s even him singing on one of the tracks, the ultimate producer faux pas.<\/p>\n I’m not sure, because I don’t have any label copy, no liner notes.\u00c2\u00a0 You see "Safe Trip Home" isn’t going to be released commercially for another two weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 But I found it on RapidShare Monday.\u00c2\u00a0 I played it on my iPod as I hiked in the mountains.\u00c2\u00a0 Just me and Dido Armstrong.\u00c2\u00a0 One contemplative individual with another.\u00c2\u00a0 And as the album progressed I realized something was wrong, it was the difference between Fiona Apple’s first album and her second, between greatness and good enough, between something you couldn’t wait to listen to again and something you never needed to hear again.\u00c2\u00a0 I waited four years for this?<\/p>\n What am I saying here?<\/p>\n That I don’t understand release dates anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 When you can get the album weeks ahead online, why are we married to physical dates?\u00c2\u00a0 This album should have gone live on iTunes the day it appeared on the blogs.\u00c2\u00a0 If Metallica can forsake the first week mantra by releasing "Death Magnetic" on a Friday, why do we need giant first week SoundScan numbers?\u00c2\u00a0 So executives clueless in digital can slap each other’s backs as their business implodes?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about the long haul.\u00c2\u00a0 And Metallica put out a good record, the band’s fans like "Death Magnetic", and as a result the collection has legs.<\/p>\n Why do I have to wait four years?\u00c2\u00a0 In the old days a misstep could be just that.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, by time Dido has another album, I could be dead.<\/p>\n Why do you have to change your sound?\u00c2\u00a0 AC\/DC has proven this.\u00c2\u00a0 A formula is fine if it’s yours.\u00c2\u00a0 The Faithless sound of Dido’s first two albums was the underpinning of her career, it was the magic element.\u00c2\u00a0 Without it, "Safe Trip Home" is just another album for fans at best, for collectors.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t e-mail a track and infatuate someone who’s not already indoctrinated.<\/p>\n There’s got to be a backstory here.\u00c2\u00a0 Involving romance, involving a fight.\u00c2\u00a0 Why did Dido work with Mr. Brion?\u00c2\u00a0 Couldn’t anyone have said it wasn’t working, certainly not well enough?<\/p>\n I could wait until I play the album more to weigh in.\u00c2\u00a0 But, I’m not sure I’m going to.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s far from awful.\u00c2\u00a0 The opener, "Don’t Believe In Love", is decent.\u00c2\u00a0 "Never Want To Say It’s Love" is growing on me.\u00c2\u00a0 I was enraptured by the lengthy final track, "Northern Skies".\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But I wince at some of the cuts, and others do nothing for me.<\/p>\n But they’re gonna ramp up the machine and try to flog this album like it’s a key element in Dido’s canon, another cornerstone in her foundation.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s an aborted side trip.\u00c2\u00a0 This is one of those rare situations where I’m glad I’m back in my flat, with the comfortable old numbers.<\/p>\n Dido, I want to see you again.\u00c2\u00a0 The old Dido.\u00c2\u00a0 The English chanteuse, not the SoCal wannabe.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you know the song 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It starts with an ethereal figure, like something off the great "Moon Safari" by Air, then slowly penetrates the atmosphere, comes down to Earth with an acoustic guitar and Dido starts to sing: Two weeks away it feels like the world should’ve changed But I’m home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-mM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
But I’m home now <\/span>
And things still look the same<\/span><\/p>\n