Dido Live

Brit superstar Dido has a far smaller following in the U.S. than in her homeland, and after watching this 90-minute concert filmed in August 2004 at London's Brixton Academy, it's easy to see why: America is already top-heavy with trip-hop pop princesses who sing whiny falling-in-and-out-of-love songs. A classically trained musician with a melodious voice (that often mimics the Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan--in fact, the Dido oeuvre generally sounds like Cranberries-lite), Dido Armstrong's big boost came in 1999 when Eminem sampled her song "Thank You" for his mega-hit "Stan." Drawing from her two studio albums to date (1999's No Angel and 2003's Life for Rent), the 33-year-old with the prematurely world-weary 'tude here performs a 17-song set backed by a band that produces a big and clean (but also somewhat sterile) sound on favorites such as "Thank You," "Here With Me," "See You When You're 40," "Do You Have a Little Time," "Life for Rent," and "White Flag" (on the intro to the last-named tune, Dido admits that she "probably shouldn't have written it" because it's caused a "lot of trouble," which led me to believe that the song must have some particularly incendiary political or religious lyrics--foolish me, it's just another solipsistic love song). Professionally filmed in soft-focus (the visuals are top-notch, although Dido herself--who is from the stand-and-sway school--has little stage presence), and backed by superb DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo sound options, Dido Live includes a bonus audio CD with 12 songs from the concert. Optional. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)