Dido

Of the healthy stable of producers and guests who guide Dido's third studio effort, it's producer Jon Brion (Rufus Wainwright, Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple) who does the heavy lifting, situating the singer within dense, velvety textures (including some lush string arrangements) that match the darker shade of her newfound emotional complexity. Even as the topics get weighty -- the death of her father among them -- her typically breezy disaffection keeps things fairly chilly. A late highlight comes in the intimate duet with New York DJ and producer Citizen Cope.