Album reviews: Dave – Psychodrama, and Dido – Still on My Mind

20-year-old artist offers tracks that are both astute and deeply personal on his superb debut album. Also reviewed this week: Dido's new record Still On My Mind

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Dave, Psychodrama

★★★★★

People unfamiliar with Streatham-born rapper Dave often react to his seemingly “ordinary” name with a furrowed brow, a curl of the lip: “What kind of artist calls themself Dave?”. Listen to his debut album, Psychodrama, and you’ll discover there’s nothing ordinary about him. At 20 years old, Dave – born David Orobosa Omoregie – has just released one of the most thoughtful, moving and necessary albums of 2019 so far.

The concept for Psychodrama came from conversations with one of his older brothers, who is having therapy while serving a life sentence in prison. On “Drama”, Dave actually uses his brother’s words to form the lyrics: “Forget the other brother that was even bigger/ We were figures just trying to figure out if we could be a figure.”

A talented pianist as well as a rapper and singer, Dave often spits over discordant chords to amplify the urgency of his chosen subject, or else raps in gruff, assertive tones across an emotional sequence that complements his stoic intensity. On “Environment”, he talks about the conflict between what people see of his apparently glamorous life, and the reality behind the scenes where the blood and sweat is drawn out of him. He’s put everything into this album.

Tracks are at once astute and deeply personal in how they capture vignettes of everyday life and spin them into important lessons. “Black”, the most recent single from the record, considers what that word means to different people around the world, as well as to Dave. “Voices” has him singing over an old-school garage beat, fighting off personal demons.

“Lesley” is a devastating, nine-minute account of a woman Dave has conversations with on the train, from a different background – “two different worlds but the same location” – who is trapped in an abusive relationship. At the close he asks the simple question: how many women are going through the same thing, who could be sitting right next to you?

“I could be the rapper with a message like you’re hoping, but what’s the point in me being the best if no one knows it?” he challenges on “Psycho”, which flips scattershot between beats and moods as though the track itself is schizophrenic. Dave spends Psychodrama addressing issues caused by the generations who came before him. By the end of the album, he sounds like a figurehead for the hopeful future.

Dido, Still on My Mind

★★★☆☆

It’s 20 years ago that Dido made her debut album, No Angel, which would sell more than 21 million copies and make her a global star.

If you’re wondering what Dido Armstrong has been doing in the five years since her last album, she’s been hanging out with her son, Stanley. Not that her return, Still on My Mind, is about motherhood – although one of the most effective songs on her fifth release is album-closer “Have to Stay”, a tender ballad to her son, backed by minimal, melodious synth chords.

Where electronic beats – provided by her multi-instrumentalist collaborator and brother Rollo – become the focus, it sounds as though Dido has been spending just as much time in the late night chill-out zones of Ibiza. It’s when her folky roots take centre stage, such as on the intimate “Some Kind of Love”, where subtle electronics add atmosphere beneath naturally lilting vocals and finger-picked acoustica, that Still on My Mind is most enjoyable.

There is no earworm melody as insistent as “White Flag” here, but melancholic opener “Hurricanes” and single “Give It Up” boast that same persistent emotion. And, of course, there’s that voice: steadfastly pure and mellifluous, just as it sounded 20 years ago.

This article was originally published on 8 March 2019