No Roots

by

Faithless

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This new Faithless album distinguishes itself from the former three by being less dance-oriented. It looks as if they have decided that they've exploited the "Insomnia", "Salva Mea", and "God is a DJ" sound enough by now. Do not take this the wrong way, I love all of these tracks, but I think it is better this way.

The album "No Roots" is more intelligent, more message-driven and less varied, less up and down the wall. The main message is war, in its personal and sociological hue. There is a new vocalist, called LSK, and his voice fits the Faithless sounds. Maxi Jazz' lyrics are once again deeply inspiring, Dido makes another cameo. Rollo and Sister Bliss' efforts are less to the front, since none of the new songs seem to have that characteristic easy melody. Instead, the melodies arrive from orchestration and percussion.

All this makes this the easiest to listen to Faithless album, and the loungeiest. Yet, in a way, it seems the most coherent, developed and inspiring of them all, even when my premonitions tell me there will not be any great hits coming from this album. But isn't less presence in the hit parade more often the price for taking the long way home and abandoning easy tunes?

This one gets four stars,

Bram Janssen,

The Netherlands

At first, I was pleased with this album, as a whole, but as I listened to it more I began to realize that, musically, it's both more mature and a yet a step backwards from their previous work.

Faithless' music (lyrics excluded for now) has always been good (especially in songs with lyrics) but yet on the recent albums some of the songs have had music which is just silly. Code comes to mind from Outrospective, for example. This album has a few songs with bass lines and rhythms which are repetitive to the point of making me, as a listner, want the song to hurry up (but not enough to skip over it.) The reason I don't skip songs is that the album is divided into two parts. The music is continuous until track 7 when it stops and begins anew. To skip songs would be like skipping a movement in Beethoven's choral symphony.

However, Faithless is a techno band and, by and large, techno is a genre of silly-sounding music (Juno Reactor, Fluke, and usually Faithless stand out as bands on a short list which rise above this.) However, on this album it sounds as though Faithless has been looking to other techno bands for inspiration and there is not the musical diversity or simplicity as found on Sunday 8PM, which is the work of a master. On S8PM, most of the songs sound different, show off the band's talent as composers and Maxi's skill as a lyricist. If I were to have the band's ear for a night, I'd tell them to look into musics they've never listened to, instruments they've never heard of or seen, and re-learn music as though they have never heard so much as a bird's morning song.

This album is different from S8PM. It is as though Faithless does not approach, on this album, the human voice as an instrument. What I mean is this: Maxi's lyrics, which are very good, are often overpowered by the thump of the music. I don't listen to Faithless to hear thumping music, nor should I. If I want to listen to thumping music, I'll roll down my window and listen to the 16-year-old next to me who's blaring 50-Cent.

What I mean by the last paragraph is that the lyrics and voice do not feel as though they are in concert with the music and instead feel as though they are in opposition to it, competition with it. The listener can choose between the music or the lyrics but at not point can both be heard simultaneously.

The lyrics themselves are, as is Maxi's mark, thoughtful and deep - especially the narrative portions which are among the best lyrics on any Faithless album. However, non-narrative lyrical segments are more obvious than past albums' lyrics have been. This is not a criticism, just a note. Indeed, in times as these, it is more important for lyrics of meaning to be forthright in their delivery instead of leaving their message under layers of lines to be deciphered over multiple listenings.

This also lends the lyrics to being very topical. In "Mass Descturction," the lyrics reference Enron and Haliburton. In 10 years, Enron, at least, will be no more than an obscure footnote hinted at in one of history's many lost appendices. Might as well write a song about Martha Stewart's conviction, at that point.

Here's the long and short of what this review is meant to say: If you like Faithless, if you have been a fan and own both versions of all their albums (as I do) and/or their singles, then get this album. If you have never bought a Faithless album before and are thinking this might be a good one to get as it's their newest one, get Sunday 8PM or Reverence instead and if you like those (which you will,) come back in a month and pick this one up.