Safe Trip Home

Release

The album's cover artwork and track listing were revealed by Dido's official website on 5 September 2008. The album was originally due to be released on 3 November, but was delayed for two weeks due to manufacturing delays. In the UK, the album launch was heralded with a special listening party, which fans can win an invitation to through the Nectar loyalty card points scheme.

The album cover features a photograph of astronaut Bruce McCandless II during a spacewalk, as part of space shuttle mission STS-41-B. McCandless later sued Dido, Sony Music Entertainment and Getty Images over violating his publicity rights. The case was settled under undisclosed terms on 14 January 2011. An August 2005 Smithsonian magazine article about the photo quoted McCandless saying that the subject's anonymity is its best feature. "I have the sun visor down, so you can't see my face, and that means it could be anybody in there. It's sort of a representation not of Bruce McCandless, but mankind."

On 27 October 2008, it was announced that eleven short films were being produced to accompany the tracks on the album, based around the theme of home.

Critical reception

The album received very positive reviews. Metacritic rates the album at 74 out of a 100. Stephanie Merritt from The Guardian wrote "This album is a mature and thoughtful collection of songs and a fine memorial to her father, who would have been right to be proud." While Chris Willman from Entertainment Weekly said "The emotion in these sad, subtle songs seems inherent enough, though you may still find yourself wishing she'd allowed the slightest hint of it to creep into her voice." Will Hermes of Rolling Stone said: "Dido's voice is so comforting, you almost miss the blues it conceals."

Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine gave a more critical review: "The album might be Dido's least adventurous to date, [with] her brand of vanilla soul going down like a warm cup of milk on tracks like the lead single "Don't Believe in Love" and "Quiet Times", the lyrics of which pretty much capture her overall state of mind: "My home is home and I'm settled now/I've made it through the restless phase." Though he noted that there was a "timeless quality to the songwriting and production." Elizabeth Goodman of Blender was also more critical. "The songs are ostensibly sad but [they are] as pleasant as a pile of warm, unfolded laundry. ...Dido should let her socks go unsorted for a while; genuine sorrow sounds good on her." Regardless of the album's late release in the year, it was ranked No. 50 in Q's 50 Best Albums of the Year 2008. In 2010, the album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

Singles

Two singles were released from the album. On 22 August 2008, the day that the album's title was announced, the track "Look No Further" was released as a free digital download through her official website. The first official single from Safe Trip Home, "Don't Believe in Love", was released on 27 October 2008. It was also made available on iTunes stores internationally from 29 October. The second single, "Quiet Times", was released in February 2009.

Track listing

Note: Tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 9 & 11 produced by Jon Brion and tracks 2, 4, 7, 8, 10 produced by The Ark & Dido

Personnel