Composition
Life for Rent's first track and lead single "White Flag" begins with a lone synth-chord reminiscent of Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U". In the song, the protagonist is unwilling to give up, even if they know it’s over. It features "multi-layered" sound, delicate piano outro, and strings. In battle, a white flag signals surrender. By stating there will be "No white flag," she indicates she will not give up on the relationship. The second track "Stoned" has a dance vibe, bringing to mind David Bowie circa Outside (1995). The title track, "Life for Rent", has emotional gravity and graceful melody. The song opens with an acoustic guitar, keeping the guitar in and giving the tune a hip-hop beat. "Nothing I have is truly mine" she repeats at the conclusion. “Mary’s in India” is a reflective song about a friend who moves abroad, as the title suggests, and the void her departure creates in those she leaves behind. The fifth track "See You When You're 40" is a somber and melodic ballad with a touch of symphonic air, featuring "quasi" trip-hop beat. 'And I've seen, tonight, what I'd been warned about / I'm gonna leave, tonight, before I change my mind,' she sings.
The sixth track "Don't Leave Home" sounds like she's picking herself up again although she speaks of shutting the blinds and closing the door. but she revealed that it's about drug addiction. But the "narrator" of the song is the drug. Like a controlling lover, the drug takes over the user's life until he doesn't even want to leave home. "Who Makes You Feel" is a trip-pop, soulful and tender track. "Sand in My Shoes" talks about not having time, while the bridge get a bit dance-house. "Do You Have a Little Time" features lush strings and hip-hop back-beats. "This Land of Mine" is a reflective piece that according to PopMatters, "could have Travis or Coldplay recording it with big grins on their faces. Simplistic and sparse, the song sounds just a bit like Olivia Newton-John in the early seventies, according to them. "See the Sun" sees Dido swoops in as savior for a broken heart, classified as a "mini-anthem that has all the right items in their proper places."
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