Dido - Live versions - My lovely Dido
You know,Dido is one of my favourite singers so I bought all her CDs and her "Live at the Brixton Academy".Although I don't enjoy her second album"Life for rent"as much as her first album,I still like "Life for rent", "White flag", "Do you have a little time", "Paris", and especially "See the sun".Her live versions including old and new songs are really interesting with her new experiences in harmony. You can find the sound of guitar and percussion so impressive and emotional and her voice is more powerful than it is in her originals (Here with me, Hunter,Isobel, My Life & Honestly Ok, Take my hand, All you want, Stoned). I find the harmony of Isobel and "My Life & Honestly Ok"(two songs are combined into one) really excellent and extremely impressive, creative. I find "Honestly Ok"s instrumental performance really haunted,vivid (the sound of DJ and two percussion makes the live version much more different from the original). I do like the guitarist with his clear and deep sound. In "Life for rent","Do you have a little time","White flag" and "See the sun",her voice was very emotive. You can find some interesting additional information from her notes before each song. As she said,most of her songs like "White flag","Do you have a little time", "Hunter","See you when you're fourty","Take my hand","Sand in my shoes"...she wrote them for herself, she wrote them right from her heart,from her situation, her experience of life. So when she sang them, I could feel her songs were her confidences...She seemed to move into tears when she sang some songs (especially "Do you have a little time" and "My life"- sad and emotional, moved songs, also "White flag","Life for rent", "See the sun")."Life for rent" was possibly, vaguely about her lonely life when she was making the second album( sorry I couldn't hear all her words ) You know, I found one thing which is very interesting about "Take my hand"(Touch my skin and tell me what you're thinking...) "I wrote this song when I was a teenager. I just discovered sex.I was very excited with my new hobby. And this is the first song I ever wrote..".When I heard that, at first I feel a little bit shock but later I thought "Oh,it's normal. It's in England", and even I feel that I like her more and admire her personal character (but I prefer the original Take my hand).I liked "Take my hand" so much as early as I was about just eleven or twelve years old (just a kid) coz I can feel the passion and desire,emotion from the memory and lyric .Don't misunderstand me ,coz we're in Vietnam and I don't agree with that action,but she's English . "Mary's India"was for her best friend who got married in India (a gentle song, but I like the lyric) ."See the sun" is "This is the song about friendship, happens to be my mom's favourite". I enjoyed seeing her playing the guitar and piano :X of "Do u have a little time " and "See the sun" (she's talented). Above all, I love "Isobel"(much because of the harmony and her vivid,strong and emotive voice ) the most together with "My life & Honestly Ok ", "Hunter"(so lively) ,"See the sun"(so optimistic content) "Life for rent", White flag",and of course my favourite always "Here with me".
According to my appraise : My life & Honestly Ok and "Isobel","Do you have a little time","See the sun : 5; Thank u, White flag,Life for rent, Here with me, All you want, Take my hand, Mary's India : 4 - 4.5; Stoned,See u when u're 40,Don't leave home, Sand in my shoes : 2.5-4 ( a little bit boring and monotonous ).
I feel impressived with her sentence :"It's very nice to be in a place where I've sseen hundreds and thousands of gigs".And this is from the introduction from the cover of the DVD "What started as a promotional tour for Dido's latest album release "Life for rent".one stop at Brixton Academy captures a rare digital performance of Dido in front of live audience singing songs from both her old and new albums alike. Superaudio video quality with some jolly comments about each song are great perks for all enchanted fans out there. Many of the songs' new renditions with very unique signature vocal work of Dido are simply very Dido-original!"
I have the DVD at home but I love Dido coz her "No angle" really made me do fall in love with it as early as I was just a child (11,12 years old) (an excellent album from top to bottom )so I want to share you some of my remarks of the live album of Dido and hope you enjoy some live songs from YouTube. But what a pitty the sound quality of some Youtube's videos are low because they were recorded by private camera