THE Bridget Jones of English pop, Dido Armstrong arose from nowhere with a big Thank You to Eminem's Stan to sell 12 million copies of 2000's No Angel.

Rather than No Angel, she is a case of No Angle. On her second album, she still plays the pop-singer-next-door card, with Polaroid pictures of herself and her mates in the CD booklet.

She looks pretty in a Boden brochure kind of way; she sings sweetly, even hypnotically; she and co-writing brother Rollo cover the bases from pop to folk to electronic.

Dido writes for the single girl in her unsettled thirties, with a sorted job and nice foreign holidays, but a not-so-sorted personal life, relationship issues and commitment problems.

She sings of moving in on her best friend's boyfriend (Mary's In India); of men disappointing her (Stoned, See You When You're 40); of missing her holiday romance (Sand In My Shoes); of worrying over a partner staying out late (Who Makes You Feel). All stuff to be found on problem pages in glossy women's magazines, with a turn of phrase equally plain and ordinary.

Like Delia Smith, Dido is safe and reliable and magnolia. She assembles familiar ingredients in a way that satisfies the everywoman while dispiriting the adventurous. You know you should reach for something more risky - Thea Gilmore, PJ Harvey, Peaches - but Dido's Delia powers so suit English caution.

Where Dido took her first musical steps with brother Rollo's Faithless dance project, Beth Orton dipped her toes with dance producer William Orbit and later the Chemical Brothers.

Orton is the better lyricist - more savage, volatile and complex - and has a saucier, slightly damaged voice that could eventually mutate into latterday Marianne Faithfull. She has, however, underachieved, a fact borne out by this "Definitive Collection" being too reliant on the cappuccino folk of her first album, 1996's Trailer Park. 1999's Central Reservation contributes four songs; 2002's Daybreaker only two.

The previously unreleased, thoroughly lovely The Same Day is welcome; so too a bonus album of collaborations with the Chemical Brothers, Terry Callier and William Orbit; favourite B-sides; and two rarities from the Japanese-only Superpinkymandy album.

However, with Pass In Time and the irresistible rise of Dido, has the time passed for Beth Orton? Hopefully not.

Updated: 16:35 Wednesday, October 01, 2003