Friday, August 20, 2004
Rabid Fan
This explains a lot.
quote :
'This is my life now, not just some funny little thing I do,' she says, as if it's a sudden realisation. 'I couldn't just walk away from it - I employ so many people. That's a weird thing. But I do feel this is the right life, that I'm not stuck in the wrong one.'
Amen to that.
*****
This chap on the other hand has it half-right.
He can see why the audience loves her - he has insight. But he's unable to empathise - he hasn't been there. Society operates within his mind upon very fixed rules. Dido's not "doing it right", she's not firing up her audience. He puzzles why, when he's probably feeling a bit bored at the way she's keeping all her clothes on - the audience is going crazy around him and singing along.
What he hasn't seen (because he hasn't quite been there himself?) - is that there can be strength in diffidence. There can be power in humility. That understatedness does not automatically equate with bland. And the people around him are a different type of people to himself. They're the type who know.
They're the type who feel.
"Like many people, I'm looking forward to 'White Flag', not just because I know it will be the last song in the set - but she fluffs it. Once again, the introduction, 'This song caused me a lot of trouble and was very messy to write,' is more interesting than what follows. She partially redeems herself with 'All You Want' during the encore but it's not enough to outweigh all the lifeless moments that preceded it."
Lifeless? Funny thing about Dido's White Flag is, closing your eyes, the music overwhelms, and drowns the (right) listener. Something about her lyrics (? about the way she thinks?) and her voice makes you drown - in yourself. She makes it feel like you're back, wherever you were once - she somehow inadvertently, in the retelling of her story, includes, and empathises with her audience. She reminds you that you're not alone, in your little flat listening to her CD accompanied to the clacks and clicks of your keyboard as you type. And at her concert, looking around you at the people around you swaying gently, eyes slightly glazed, you realise you're so, so not alone.
Rachel Stevens, as pretty as she is loses her magic the second you close your eyes. She doesn't sing with her soul, and her lyrics are rather empty.
Dido isn't pretty in my books - her features are a little too strong for that. I'd call her handsome (but I'm strange when it comes to me-isms (neologisms). I still mean it as a compliment, without any reference whatsoever to excessive masculinity) yet in the same breath, having watched her in concert, I'd rate her (if I really was the rating kinda guy lol) a 9 out of 10 - which is equivalent to 9 on the "pretty" scale - and pretty damn rare for this bloke. Goddamit I think I have become a fan. laughs.
I guess the difference between the two, incomparable as they are is that one is an entertainer - and the other is a bard.
quote :
'This is my life now, not just some funny little thing I do,' she says, as if it's a sudden realisation. 'I couldn't just walk away from it - I employ so many people. That's a weird thing. But I do feel this is the right life, that I'm not stuck in the wrong one.'
Amen to that.
*****
This chap on the other hand has it half-right.
He can see why the audience loves her - he has insight. But he's unable to empathise - he hasn't been there. Society operates within his mind upon very fixed rules. Dido's not "doing it right", she's not firing up her audience. He puzzles why, when he's probably feeling a bit bored at the way she's keeping all her clothes on - the audience is going crazy around him and singing along.
What he hasn't seen (because he hasn't quite been there himself?) - is that there can be strength in diffidence. There can be power in humility. That understatedness does not automatically equate with bland. And the people around him are a different type of people to himself. They're the type who know.
They're the type who feel.
"Like many people, I'm looking forward to 'White Flag', not just because I know it will be the last song in the set - but she fluffs it. Once again, the introduction, 'This song caused me a lot of trouble and was very messy to write,' is more interesting than what follows. She partially redeems herself with 'All You Want' during the encore but it's not enough to outweigh all the lifeless moments that preceded it."
Lifeless? Funny thing about Dido's White Flag is, closing your eyes, the music overwhelms, and drowns the (right) listener. Something about her lyrics (? about the way she thinks?) and her voice makes you drown - in yourself. She makes it feel like you're back, wherever you were once - she somehow inadvertently, in the retelling of her story, includes, and empathises with her audience. She reminds you that you're not alone, in your little flat listening to her CD accompanied to the clacks and clicks of your keyboard as you type. And at her concert, looking around you at the people around you swaying gently, eyes slightly glazed, you realise you're so, so not alone.
Rachel Stevens, as pretty as she is loses her magic the second you close your eyes. She doesn't sing with her soul, and her lyrics are rather empty.
Dido isn't pretty in my books - her features are a little too strong for that. I'd call her handsome (but I'm strange when it comes to me-isms (neologisms). I still mean it as a compliment, without any reference whatsoever to excessive masculinity) yet in the same breath, having watched her in concert, I'd rate her (if I really was the rating kinda guy lol) a 9 out of 10 - which is equivalent to 9 on the "pretty" scale - and pretty damn rare for this bloke. Goddamit I think I have become a fan. laughs.
I guess the difference between the two, incomparable as they are is that one is an entertainer - and the other is a bard.
