Today, Faithless are like the after-party after the rave. From their massive 90s trance-like anthems to their recent chilled out grooves, they emerged from the 90’s and the dark days of dance fairly unscathed. Their fifth album ‘To All New Arrivals’ invites the listener to realise the group’s hidden depths and look past the massive mainstream success of their ‘Forever Faithless’ greatest hits collection.
With a title inspired by immigration, the birth of Sister Bliss’ first child and the arrival of Rollo’s second, Faithless are all grown up now. Gone are heavyweight beats of ‘Insomnia’ and ‘We Come One’, and here to stay are lyrics dripping with love, philosophy and politics similar to those on their 2004 ‘No Roots’ album. But that’s not a bad thing. Whereas some of their counterparts have failed at integrating their strong beliefs into their sound, Faithless have the ability to educate their audience without compromising the quality of their music.
However, ‘To All New Arrivals’ doesn’t immediately strike us as wholly fresh material from the dynamic three-piece. Believing it was to be their final album, ‘No Roots’ was allegedly a surprise hit for the group, so they can’t really be blamed for wanting to reciprocate its success by following a similar formula in their future releases.
Using a childhood theme to compliment the choice of title, echoes of giggles, gurgles and an infant’s perspective are heard through the evenly paced tracks. As usual, Maxi Jazz’s harmonious wise words and Sister Bliss’s distinctive keyboard skills stamp that Faithless trademark all over this latest offering, whilst Rollo’s little sister Dido returns to lend her vocals to ‘Last This Day’. Despite certain elements of their overall sound remaining static, some new names have been introduced to the Faithless way of life where established artists such as Cat Power and Kubb’s Harry Collier sit quite comfortably alongside lesser-known acts such as Eskimo One and Cass Fox. Following the explosive opening of latest single ‘Bombs’, The Cure’s Robert Smith interrupts the edgy, alien feel of ‘Spiders, Crocodiles and Kryptonite’ as he breaks into his late 80’s classic ‘Lullaby’. Although this is a nice touch, its presence is as unexpected as the sample from Nina Simone’s ‘Tell Me More and More and Then Some’ that Faithless used on previous hit ‘I Want More’.
They may have outsold Basement Jaxx, The Prodigy, Massive Attack, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and Underworld in the greatest hits stakes, but Faithless have decided not to rest on their laurels and still feel that they have more to give to the world. They may be far from new arrivals to the British music scene, but a key piece nonetheless.
