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Album Review | ‘No Angel’ by Dido
Dido’s meteoric debut captivates with its trademark trippy folktronica sound and cathartic seas of longing.
Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong (yes, that is her full name) began her musical education in her youth, tackling the piano, recorder, and violin by the end of her teens. It would be vocal contributions to her brother Rollo’s band Faithless that would get her major label attention.
The road to her debut was filled with obstacles after a series of rocky management contracts and a torrid relationship left Dido suffering from agoraphobia, depression, and panic attacks:
“I didn’t bank the cheque for ages. I didn’t leave the house. My heart was going at 200 beats per minute. I really felt like I was giving away my music. It was the only thing I’d had for my whole life, the only thing that was mine. I lost it… that feeling where you just want to remove yourself from your body, when you just can’t take it any more . . . I’d rather not dwell.” — Dido via The Guardian (2001)
All was not lost. Working alongside her brother Rollo, she shaped the album that would become No Angel. The inclusion of “Here Without Me” in Roswell’s finale and Enimen’s “Stan” would shoot her into the stratosphere. It’s easy to see why. Dido’s voice…
