Dido, Life For Rent

This is a very solid album. The first nine songs maintain a consistent level of quality, and "White Flag" is one of the best songs of the year--a poignant reflection on lost love and the unwillingness to let go. The sinking ship is the perfect metaphor for so many reasons: it implies the singer's dedication to her love by evoking the image of the captain who won't leave his ship behind, but also implies that she was the one keeping the relationship running in the first place and probably couldn't--and can't--do anything to save it.

Dido uses the setting sun to great effect in "Mary's in India," another standout song. Standing for the difference in time between Mary and her lover, Danny, back in Britain, and also for the emotional shifts that take place over the course of the song, the sun metaphor looks, in the lyric book, like it pushes the delicate boundary between cleverness and shlock--but Dido's delivery carries the day, and the song itself lands clearly on the safe (and sonically pleasing) side of the line.

The last few songs drag a bit--particularly "This Land is Mine," a mistake in tempo at track 10 on what is otherwise a nearly flaw-free CD. "See the Sun" sets things to rights, and the bonus track is an acoustic--and very pretty--love song, perhaps the most sincere and heartfelt on the album besides "White Flag."

Dido's songwriting remains strong on this album, and her classical training informs a musically interesting work that occasionally slips into sounding too much like itself by maintaining the same mid-tempo beat for much of the album. Nevertheless, that feel suits the songs, and as a result Life For Rent is just as strong as No Angel , if a bit more consistent and lacking an obvious second single. Here's hoping she releases "Stoned" to radio--it has the best danceability on the album, and people will love the title.