To All New Arrivals
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To All New Arrivals, the new album by Faithless only arrived in our household two weeks ago. With this is mind, hopefully it will come as no surprise to you that it was only yesterday that I had been able to give it the attention it deserves and listen to it properly. To do this I decided inadvertently to walk the five and a half miles back from the Trafford Centre to Oxford Road at 12:00am through wind and rain after a production meeting. Why would I choose to do this? Simply, because I could! With my HD-25 headphones on, the world outside becomes obsolete, only the music matters.
So headphones on and a steady pace underfoot, I hit play on my iPod and in To All New Arrivals started playing, knocking out an album version of Bombs. It very quickly becomes aparent that this album is not what the uneducated public would call traditional Faithless. However this is because they would only have heard the club anthems (Insomnia, God is a DJ, We Come One…) and not bothered to go out and buy the albums. If they had, they would know that Faithless were always about so much more than club anthems.
This album has no club anthems, so the lighthearted Faithless listener might be in for a shock. To All New Arrivals is a progression, a mature statement on our society and a bloody good morning after the night before tonic. Sister Bliss has been busy growing up having baby Nate and with it her music seems to be maturing. Rather than blasting all out on her Korg’s, this album has layer upon layer of electronic synth, each delicately placed just in the right place. Behind it is a thumping bass when needed, a more mature beat throughout. Weaved into the music are Maxi Jazz’s sobering lyrics and backing from a variety of artists.
After listening to the complete album uninterrupted for a third time, I have come to the conclusion that this album is now almost my favourite from the back catalogue. Unfortunately Sunday 8PM is such a good album in every respect that it still holds a special place in my heart. An album with Bring My Family Back and Take The Long Way Home together, plus Killers Lullaby is going to be hard to beat, but then that is only my opinion.
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