Dodie has released yesterday a live performance video on her Youtube channel of her recent song ‘Cool Girl,’ recorded in an abandoned swimming pool and featuring a stripped back rendition where dodie sings and plays a simple accompaniment on her guitar. The song is set to be included on her debut album ‘Build A Problem,’ which is set to be released on March 5th 2021. Dodie’s stripped back and calming approach to music is suitable for a Britain currently going through its second period of total lockdown, with millions of people currently stuck at home with very little to do, the calming sounds of dodie are a pleasant relief from the stresses and strains of the current situation.
While the simplistic approach of just a gentle guitar part combined with a moving vocal performance may seem like a stripped back approach for many artists. However, dodie’s sound is actually very similar to this seemingly raw performance even when the track has been fully produced and prepared for release. The official video for ‘Cool Girl,’ which premiered on Youtube on the 2nd of November, while some production tweaks such as string parts and backing vocals have been added, is in many ways very similar to this live performance and is mostly built around a very simple guitar part and simple, yet effective and very emotionally moving vocal lines.
Although ‘Build A Problem,’ will mark dodie’s first foray into the world of full length album making, she has hardly been inactive in the years running up to this moment, having released three relatively successful EP’s to date with her most recent effort, ‘Human,’ reaching as high as number five on the UK official album charts when it was released in 2019. This was her second top 10 effort with 2017’s ‘You,’ climbing as high as number 6. While her debut EP ‘Intertwined,’ only reached as far as number 35, this is still a pretty good achievement for a breakthrough artist in the relatively niche genre of indie-pop.
With ‘Build A Problem,’ set to release next March and with a follow up tour of the UK set to take place in September, it does seem to look like dodie may well be preparing the ground of a number 1 album. Depending on what other artists decide to release albums at a similar time and on how well dodie manages to promote the album and the following tour in the time before March, we may well be looking at a debut album landing at number one on the UK charts. Dodie does seem very appealing to a niche following which she has manage to build in the few years since she began releasing music and is certainly well versed in using the social media and other online tools which have proved so valuable to artists in this time of lockdown.
Dodie is set to embark on a tour of the UK in September of 2021, full dates are as follows:
19/09/2021 – O2 Apollo – Manchester
20/09 – O2 Academy – Glasgow
21/09 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
23/09 – O2 Guildhall – Southampton
24/09 – O2 Academy – Bristol
27/09 – Eventim Apollo – London
