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| 1. Intro |
| 2. Mass Destruction |
| 3. I Want More – Pt 1 |
| 4. I Want More – Pt 2 |
| 5. Love Lives On My Street |
| 6. Bluegrass |
| 7. Sweep |
| 8. Miss U Less, See U More |
| 9. No Roots |
| 10. Swingers |
| 11. Pastoral |
| 12. Everything Will Be Alright Tomorrow |
| 13. What About Love |
| 14. In The End |
| 15. Mass Destruction (P*Nut and Sister Bliss Mix) |
Anyone who's seen Faithless live knows how they can jam around their back catalogue, making medleys and breakdowns of epic proportions: No Roots is a studio realisation of that. Highlighted by "I Want More", downbeat tunes build until their climax when an uptempo number will kick in. "Sweep" is simply a 909 drum and percussion loop with synth flourishes that drops into "Miss You Less, See You More", a classic house tune that closes part one of the album. Something other than a collection of hands-in-the-air floor-fillers and downbeat songs to chillout to, No Roots should be listened to in its entirety. It's a cohesive body of work that builds and dips in all the right places. --David Trueman
Review Their long players,with the exception of Reverence,have never quite lived up to the genius of their house hits. However, the fourth album No Roots, manages to go that one step further and gather song writing, gravitas and production under the same roof.
Hit single "Mass Destruction" is a fine example of this as Maxi Jazz chooses to hit us with the highly-charged lyrics: "Whether long range weapon or suicide bomb a wicked mind is a weapon of mass destruction". This catchy, sign-o-the-times anthemembodies the mood of the whole album as the band combine ambient beats with a self-assessing philosophical perspective on the world today.
As ever,Rollo and co.have made a concerted effort to expand the dance boundaries. This time they have done it by attempting to ensure each track spills over into the next. "I Want More: Part 1 and 2" are juxtaposed superbly, with the former oozing affecting eloquence while the second half morphs into the album's tub thumping dance anthem.
The songs here are short and tightly focussed and thankfully, we are spared the drawn out monotonous melodies that often befall the progressive house genre. The fact that there are 15 songs on this record means the level of dynamism and interest is intact which, given that the entire album is in the key of C, is remarkable!
The title track is the pick of the bunch with Dido's angelic tones and Maxi'sspoken wordrolling into a perfect combination. The song reflects the sad beauty that made "One Step Too Far" such a strong track. It also makes you wonder why Dido doesn't stick to what she's good at, singing dance anthems instead of hollow love songs for housewives.
Whilst depressing at times it is a clear that the band, like so few others in dance music have a conscience and the intelligence to inject some meaning into their music. This, in the end, is the record's greatest strength. In an age where political descent in the world of commercial music is akin to career suicide Faithless should be applauded for their conviction. --Jack Smith
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Faithless have always written intricate and measured music, often of some genius, and I don't think it's fair to say their previous output was more about mindless dance anthems. The likes of Sunday 8pm are littered with moving, artistic pieces of music. This album continues this trend implicitely, and works both on technically musical and emotive levels.
There is scarcely a lacklustre track on the album. I Want More offers that holy grail of meaningful sub-tones yet gung-ho anthemic club melodies, as does Everything Will Be Alright Tomorrow and What About Love which, as someone stated, really is this album's dance anthem.
In a nut-shell? Careful, deliberate music which is both artistic and endlessly anthemic.
What brings out the joy in me is "Massdestruction" where the video on the CD is splendid and the music good ol'e Faithless. That number is outstanding and although it is close to "Insomnia" in its trance recitation that is Maxi Jazz at his best.
Sadly the rest of the CD is hit by a CONCEPT: The group has chosen to play all the numbers in the same key (C) and although this does make it easier for DJ's to inmix other tracks it brings the music to a bit of a stillstand. Too ambient, you could say. The worst is though that Maxi Jazz is stepping to the background in many tracks and is letting the soft-voiced LSK do the job. No, I don't like that - give me back the REAL Jazz and his insisting voice.
But I must still surrender: I like Faithless so much that I will recommend this album to you - but remember, it is more conceptual that the previous.
Barring a few borrowed vocal lines and Maxi's smoothly delivered lyrics, No Roots is nothing like Faithless's... Read more
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