Dido Armstrong (yes, that is her real name) has emerged from the trunk of Eminem's car to become a major star. She has sold two million copies of her debut album, No Angel, in the US, and sold out her concert in Vicar Street last Monday night, prompting fans to postpone their dinner parties and go see a gig.
In person, Dido looks your typical indie English rose: casual jeans, torso-hugging top, Anthea Turner-style blonde bob and charming, coy smile. After a short musical intro just to prove that the band hasn't been hastily cobbled together, Dido launches into the Celtic-style ballad, My Lover's Gone, her voice displaying a tasteful mix of folk priestess and pop diva.
All You Want, co-written with her brother, Faithless leader Rollo Armstrong, has a darker edge, as does the current single, Here With Me - the bright, breezy, trip-hop beats and caramel-coated delivery, however, suggest a somewhat lighter shade of pain.
As she ticks off each song on her album, including Isobel, Slide and Don't Think of Me, it is apparent that Dido hasn't yet developed the emotional range which could make these songs bite harder. Even Thank You, the song sampled by Eminem on Stan, seems far too compliant for comfort, while a new song, Don't Leave Home, has the makings of a rather innocuous, post-feminist terrace anthem.
What Dido needs now is a more varied selection of songs, a broader palette on which to stretch her voice, and a band which can do more than an adequate reproduction of the record. Then we can really get excited about her.
