In Ruby World, Sequel (http://sequel.jeremyevans.net/) probably gives a bit of best of both ORM and direct SQL use, because what it really does is an object-oriented ("native" to language) interface to SQL database. And yes, it can build models like ActiveRecord, too!
In Common Lisp, postmodern (http://marijnhaverbeke.nl/postmodern/) serves a similar role, with both DAO and lower-level access methods that compose pretty well. The 'perec' ORM from DWIM project was based on Postmodern, and among some weirder things I did quite easily was embedding custom SQL into query builder, so that the object-based accesses would use the advanced SQL. Really nifty feature :)
In Common Lisp, postmodern (http://marijnhaverbeke.nl/postmodern/) serves a similar role, with both DAO and lower-level access methods that compose pretty well. The 'perec' ORM from DWIM project was based on Postmodern, and among some weirder things I did quite easily was embedding custom SQL into query builder, so that the object-based accesses would use the advanced SQL. Really nifty feature :)