Great stuff, but not as I expected (Outrospective - Faithless)

Member Name: Pamsy

Product:	Outrospective - Faithless
Date:	10/08/01 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Awesome lyrics yet again, Good quality tracks

Disadvantages: Not as dancy as I'd have liked

Faithless stand as a welcome anomaly in dance music. Neither fluffy house nor sober techno, neither a conventional group nor a loose collective, the British team has sold millions worldwide of its previous albums, Reverence (1996) and Sunday 8pm (1998), and has proven itself a formidable live act, while allowing its members to pursue individual paths.

Classically trained keyboard player Sister Bliss is a world-class DJ. 'Rapper' (though I wouldn't class him as such) Maxi Jazz has an impressive résumé as MC, DJ and label entrepreneur. Producer/programmer Rollo — who doesn't tour with the band and has now dropped out of photo ops — has his pick of studio projects. And Rollo's sister Dido, a guest vocalist on each Faithless album, is doing very well for herself nowdays.

Faithless have established themselves as an institution within the dance music scene, still releasing albums, playing live to mass audiences, and enduring the ever changing music scene for longer than some of their counterparts such as Massive Attack and Underworld.

This album unfortuntely however, doesn't give the same dance impression that the awesome single We Come One implies. The Faithless trademark of Maxi Jazz's rhythmic ranting is still there however, as is a contribution on One Step Too Far from Rollo's little sis', Dido (who has already, and perhaps embarrassingly, out sold all of Faithless’s albums with only her first, but this is because Faithless do not market their music aggressivley and drift into the dire pop world). Crazy English Summer (think they might know what they’re talking about!) is beautifully calm and atmospheric, whilst 'Tarantula' looks set to be another successful trance hit showing where the talents of Faithless really lie. The best track however, is the already released We Come 1, and if you turn your stereo up loud enough it's almost as good as God Is A DJ...but not quite.
Their best ever track, in my opinion, will always be Insomnia.

It's a good album - which you could say about all of faithless's music– but at the same time none of it, including Outrospective, has been or will ever be considered a classic. Most of it is a kind of relaxing dance, however I think they should stick to the more full-on dance tracks like We Come One and Insomnia, because this is what theyre best at. Oh as well as truly awesome lyrics, listen out for those.

If you're into Faithless then buy it, however if you're expecting an album of tracks similar to We Come One you may be dissappointed. There's only really one other track which is as dancy as that on there which is Tarantula.

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