No Angel
No Angel is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Dido. It was released on 1 June 1999, by Arista Records and Cheeky Records.
Dido began recording what would become No Angel in 1995, having already written numerous songs, principally based on real-life circumstances at the time. She simultaneously collaborated with her brother Rollo Armstrong's electronic dance band Faithless, attracting the attention of Clive Davis, founder and then-president of Arista. Dido subsequently signed with the label and completed the album, predominantly producing it with Rollo. She wrote all of the album's tracks, exploring lyrical themes such as love, codependency, and introspection. Further collaborators on the record included Rick Nowels, Youth, Jamie Catto, and Sister Bliss, whose contributions resulted with a folk-pop and folktronica musical style experimenting with trip hop, electronica, and dream pop.
Due to contractual reasons, No Angel would not be released outside the US until 16 October 2000, when it was issued in Dido's native UK, being progressively made available worldwide in subsequent months. Upon release, the album received generally mixed to positive reviews from music critics, who complimented its sonic quality and Dido's vocal performance, but criticized the lyricism. Commercially a sleeper hit, the album debuted at low positions in both the UK and the US, before steadily ascending to number one on the UK Albums Chart and in nine other countries, and number four on the US Billboard 200. It became one of the best-selling albums of 2001 worldwide, and won British Album of the Year at the Brit Awards 2002.
No Angel produced three commercial singles—"Here with Me", "Thank You", and "Hunter". "Here with Me" and "Thank You" both reached the top five on the UK Singles Chart, while the latter peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, after receiving widespread exposure due to being sampled on Eminem's "Stan". To further promote the album, Dido embarked on an extensive world tour. No Angel went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time in the UK, being certified decuple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for sales of three million units. It was also certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, selling over four million units in the US. One of the best-selling albums of all time, the album has sold 15 million copies worldwide.
Writing and recording
Dido began writing songs for what would become No Angel around 1994, as she signed multiple ephemeral management deals, as well as her first publishing deal. Suffering from depression and frequent panic attacks, she wrote "Honestly OK" and "Slide". Soon thereafter, she met the entertainment lawyer Bob Page, with whom she would be in a 12-year relationship. A day after meeting him, she wrote "Here with Me", "Thank You", "I'm No Angel", and "Take My Hand". In 1995, Dido began collaborating with her brother Rollo Armstrong's electronic dance music band Faithless, recording backing vocals for their debut studio album Reverence and co-writing its track "Flowerstand Man". She simultaneously recorded material for her own album, assembling an 11-track demo collection Odds & Ends, which circulated via Nettwerk Music Group, with whom she had recently signed a management deal. Alongside "Take My Hand", Odds & Ends included "Sweet Eyed Baby", which would later be remixed and retitled "Don't Think of Me", and the tracks "Worthless" and "Me", which would be included as bonus tracks on the Japanese edition of No Angel.Dido spent 1996 touring with Faithless, recording additional songs while on tour, and signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music that October. She recorded vocals for two tracks on Faithless' second studio album Sunday 8PM, one of which incorporated elements of then-unreleased "My Lover's Gone". Her collaborative work with Faithless attracted attention of Clive Davis, founder and then-president of Arista Records, who instantly offered Dido a record deal with the label after attending their concert in London in 1998. She initially refused, opting to remain signed to Rollo's label Cheeky Records, but eventually accepted the offer after Rollo sold Cheeky to the Bertelsmann Music Group, Arista's parent company, in 1999, as she was finishing recording No Angel. Dido recorded over 25 songs for the album, 12 of which made the final track listing, at six locations in London—the Angel Recording Studios, The Church Studios, the Eden Studios, the Olympic Studios, Sarm West, and the Swanyard Studios. She wrote all of the album's tracks, and produced all except "Don't Think of Me", which is the sole track produced by Youth. Rollo co-wrote five and produced seven of the album's 12 tracks, while Rick Nowels produced three. Faithless members Jamie Catto and Sister Bliss also contributed to the album, with Catto co-writing and producing "My Lover's Gone", and Sister Bliss producing "Take My Hand" and co-writing and producing the bonus track "Worthless".
Music and lyrics
No Angel is, according to critical commentaries, predominantly a folk-pop and folktronica record, incorporating elements of genres such as trip hop and electronica. In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, journalist Ernesto Lechner further classified the album as a dream pop work. Its lyrical themes primarily encompass love, lust, and complexities of relationships and friendships. John Aizlewood of The Guardian described Dido's vocals as "ice-maiden" while possessing an "undertow of humanising vulnerability". Dido's vocal performance received frequent comparisons to Sarah McLachlan and Sinéad O'Connor, while numerous critics likened the album's musical style to Beth Orton. Further comparisons were made to Faithless, Dolores O'Riordan, Sting, and Peter Gabriel.No Angel opens with "Here with Me", a "languid" folktronica track driven by "heart-monitor" synths and "dramatic" strings. The song depicts Dido as a woman dependent on her lover, attempting to imagine her life without him, while on "Hunter", she yearns to descend from the unsolicited pedestal he placed her on. String-infused "Don't Think of Me" shows a protagonist angrily scorning her former partner. "All You Want" details romantic loss from the perspective of a fixated lover, as evident in the lines: "I'd like to watch you sleep at night / To hear you breathe by my side" and "Now our bed is oh so cold / My hands feel empty, no one to hold / And I can sleep what side I want." "Thank You" expresses gratitude towards a partner alleviating different inconveniences. Musically, it is a ballad built on an acoustic guitar, congas, a recorder, and a drum machine. Folktronica and trip hop track "Honestly OK" displays a minimalist vocal arrangement against an electronic dub background, and is among the more introspective songs on the album: "I'm so lonely, I don't even want to be with myself anymore". "Slide" and "Isobel" are lyrical encouragements directed towards an anguished and remorseful friend. Syncopated up-tempo title track "I'm No Angel" is followed by the blues-influenced closing track "My Life", built on "cinematic" strings and a Wurlitzer electronic piano. Lyrically, the latter sees Dido regaining control over her situation, concluding the events of the album's lyrics similarly to a romantic comedy climax, according to Natalie Shaw of BBC.
Marketing and touring
Prior to the completion of No Angel, "Thank You" first appeared on the soundtrack for the 1998 film Sliding Doors. As early as the summer of 1998, Arista began distributing samples of the album to journalists, including the five-track The Highbury Fields EP, while some material also appeared on a promotional cassette for the 1998 Lilith Fair. Consequently, various retailers faced high demand for the album in the months preceding its release. No Angel was ultimately released on 1 June 1999, with "Here with Me" released as its lead single two weeks earlier. Dido had begun touring clubs across the US, which commenced in Boston on 10 May, and was slated to perform on five dates of the 1999 Lilith Fair in July. "Here with Me" was soon chosen as the opening theme for the American television series Roswell, and reached number 16 on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100, the Billboard Hot 100's extension chart. "Don't Think of Me" was released as a promotional single on 7 February 2000, before "Thank You" was released as the second single on 18 September, as Dido continued touring the US throughout the year, also serving as an opening act for Sting. She further promoted No Angel with televised performances on shows such as Live with Regis, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, and The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn.As Rollo's negotiations regarding the 1999 sale of Cheeky Records to BMG postponed all Cheeky releases for over a year, No Angel was not released outside the US until 16 October 2000, when it was released in Dido's native UK. It was progressively released worldwide within the following six months. The album's release in Europe and Oceania coincided with the release of Eminem's international number-one hit single "Stan", a song which incorporates a sample of the opening verse of "Thank You", and was widely credited with propelling Dido to global prominence and accelerating the sales of No Angel. In the UK, the album was reissued as an enhanced CD on 29 January 2001, while "Here with Me" was released as the lead single on 12 February 2001, peaking at number four on the UK Singles Chart, and within the top 10 in 12 additional countries. Prior to the single's relaunch, Dido filmed a second accompanying music video for the song. Dido began touring the UK for the first time in February, followed by shows across Europe throughout the spring, before returning to North America to perform at larger venues throughout the summer. "Thank You" was internationally released on 21 May 2001, peaking at number three on both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100. "Hunter" was released as the third and final single from No Angel on 18 June, attaining less commercial success than its predecessors by peaking at number 17 on the UK Singles Chart and failing to enter the US Billboard Hot 100.
Dido also promoted No Angel with televised performances in the UK, such as those of "Here with Me" and "Thank You" on Later... with Jools Holland, and separate performances of "Here with Me", "Thank You", and "Hunter" on Top of the Pops in February, June, and September 2001, respectively. In Australia, she performed "Here with Me" at the 2001 ARIA Music Awards on 30 October. Earlier that month, a double-disc special edition of the album was released in Japan and Australia, while a double-disc limited edition, including the previously unreleased "Christmas Day", was released in the UK on 19 November. "All You Want" was also released as a limited 3-inch mini single exclusively in the UK on 10 December. Although she had refused to perform at the Brit Awards 2001, where she was slated to perform "Stan" with Eminem, she performed "Here with Me" at the following ceremony on 20 February 2002. In November 2008, No Angel was digitally reissued to include "Worthless" and a Deep Dish-produced remix of "Thank You" as bonus tracks. In commemoration of its 25th anniversary, the album was made available on vinyl worldwide for the first time, alongside additional merchandise, on September 19, 2025.