Dido dissects her Greatest Hits, track-by-track (Exclusive)
Arguably, no contemporary artist has so effortlessly slipped between the subversive underground and mainstream adult contemporary as Dido has over the past two decades. Beginning with her work in her brother's electronic collective, Faithless, the English singer with the smooth voice transitioned into a mainstream radio juggernaut with the help of no less than Eminem. She's also likely the only person to ever tour on both the Lilith Fair and Anger Management tours, back-to-back.
For the release of her first career retrospective, the 41-year-old dissects her greatest hits, track-by-track.
"Here With Me"
It was the first song I wrote that was any good. It's a simple love song, written in quite a dark time. I played it for my brother (Rollo) and he took it to his company's A&R meeting and said, 'Look, we need to find someone like this' and they all looked at him like, '...and we can't sign your sister because?' The thought hadn't even crossed his mind. Obviously after that he signed me. It's the track that launched everything for me so it has a soft spot in my heart.
"Thank You"
"Thank You" has now become my wedding song. I have actually sung it at a couple friends' weddings. It's just got lovely memories — obviously with the whole "Stan" thing.
"Hunter"
"Hunter" is a real classic Rollo lyric — it's his girly, angst-y song. Because I often sing Rollo's lyrics it's quite an interesting point of view [to sing a woman's perspective written by a man], which I like.
"White Flag"
"White Flag" is one of my favourite songs. It’s still fun to sing and still very emotional. At the time, I was in the emotion of it — I had just ended a very long relationship in which I was about to get married. It's quite a heart break song.
"Life For Rent"
I wrote "Life For Rent" in America. I had basically run away from England at that point, for various reasons — I was being chased around a lot by the press and also I had just ended this relationship and stuff — and wrote pretty much the whole album while I was in America. This song was one of the first songs I wrote there and it still resonates with me. There's a line in there that says I want to live by the sea — well I still do and I still don't.
"Don't Leave Home"
Another classic Rollo bit of poetry. It's a dark love song that's actually about drug addiction. It's always creepy when people think it's a nice love song. It's like, 'Are you listening to this properly?! That's not nice, love!'
"Sand In My Shoes"
A classic holiday romance song — that feeling where you go away, have this amazing time, feel like you've gone away forever and then you get back and nothing's changed and you’re trying to recreate that feeling when you're back at home.
"Don’t Believe In Love"
I was going through a lack of commitment phase so listening back [to the song] I'm like, 'Whoa, that was harsh.'
"Quiet Times"
A very personal song about being close to someone who is depressed and won't admit it. It’s the hollow feeling of being with someone without actually being with them, if that makes sense.
"Grafton Street"
"Grafton Steet" is the most depressing song of them all (I'm realizing now that I may need to go and talk to someone). That was written straight after my dad died and it's probably my favourite song I've ever written. It's still so emotional to me. It's the song I had to write. It was just so raw, at the time. And I worked on it with Brian Eno, who is a huge hero of mine, and (Fleetwood Mac’s) Mick Fleetwood played drums. It's one of those songs that just literally everything I love was in it and on it. That recorder solo at the end just takes me back to my childhood.
"Everything To Lose"
That's a pretty happy song! I wrote it before (my son) Stanley was born, but it's still so relevant now. Before I had a family I would do anything and try anything, and then you have a family and you realize for the time you have something to lose. So it's about that moment when you realize it’s proper love and you care about losing it.
"Let Us Move On"
Basically a song about, 'Look, life is long and we just need to move on from the bad times and keep going!'
"No Freedom"
A lyric I'm actually very proud of. It’s got so much of what I believe about love and religion and everything is in there for me. It sounds silly because it's such a little song but it was inspired by the feeling of: you can travel around the world and it will be lonely if you've got no one at home loving you and it's the best feeling if you've got love somewhere.
"End Of Night"
A very bitchy song. It takes so much to actually annoy me — someone could keep jabbing at me and I won't get annoyed — but once someone has crossed me one too many times it's not great. So this is a song where I came into the studio and this one person had just betrayed me really badly and I felt I just had to just say how I feel about it. I don't usually do that in such a direct way, but this is a real direct attack on somebody.
The amazing thing is they then heard the song, loved it and had no clue it was about them. They still have no clue! One day I'll probably get drunk and tell everyone who it's about, but not today.
"One Step Too Far"
I've done so many Faithless tracks and I wanted to include one because that's where I got my start. I wouldn't be doing this if I hadn't started there.
"Stan"
Obviously a real high point of the last ten years. Particularly fun was making the video, directed by Dr. Dre and then I went on the Anger Management tour with him — I went straight from Lilith Fair to the Anger Management tour. It was the ying and yang of the music industry! I was obviously the only girl — it was Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Eminem and D12 — and I got treated so well and everyone was amazingly friendly. Eminem has always just treated me so amazingly well. So charming and so clever, I'm always impressed by him and people around him.
I heard that he was considering me for his latest album, which is news to me. Would have been cool.
"If I Rise"
That was right out the blue. I literally fell out of my chair when it got nominated for an Oscar (For Best Original Song Written for a Film). It was made for Slumdog Millionaire and then I sort of forgot about it. You're always doing things like that (one off collaborations) and then I was out at lunch and I started getting tons of e-mails congratulating me. I can't take too much credit, A.R. Rahman is a genius and pulled it all together.
"NYC"
This was supposed to go on the next record but I put it on this one because it's so appropriate. It's referencing the beginning when I went to New York when I had so much to prove but everyone told me I'm probably not going to make it. It’s that feeling of being on my own and trying to make it work thinking, 'I'm not going home until something happens here;' walking the streets of New York trying to prove a point.
(Source)
