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All Blessed is the seventh studio album by dance music act Faithless. It was released on 23 October 2020. It is their first studio album in 10 years, succeeding 2010's The Dance. It is also their first album which doesn't feature lead vocalist Maxi Jazz.
Background
On 5 June 2020, the band released two edits of a new song, "Let the Music Decide", which featured the vocals of George the Poet and was only available for a limited time on music streaming platforms, not to be found on social media ever since. Poet has a remarkably similar voice to that of former lead vocalist Maxi Jazz.
On 16 July 2020, Faithless released follow up single, "This Feeling". Similar to "Let The Music Decide", this track also features a spoken poet known as Suli Breaks, with additional vocals by singer-songwriter Nathan Ball.
Another single with Nathan Ball on vocals, "Synthesizer", was released on 28 August 2020 alongside its music video, with an announcement for the release date of 23 October for the band's seventh album "All Blessed". The tracklist however does not feature the previous two singles "Let the Music Decide" and "This Feeling", making "Synthesizer" the album's first official single.
The album's second single "Innadadance" was released 20 October, three days before the album's release. It features Suli Breaks and Jazzie B.
Former vocalist Maxi Jazz is thanked in the album's sleeve notes for "passing the baton".
User Album Review
The big news is that this is Faithless’s first album without longterm frontman Maxi Jazz. Instead, remaining members Rollo and Sister Bliss work with a cross section of vocal talent. A multi-million selling, festival-headlining act, Faithless are one of Britain’s surviving 1990s dance music juggernauts.
The big news is that this is Faithless’s first album without longterm frontman Maxi Jazz. Instead, remaining members Rollo and Sister Bliss work with a cross section of vocal talent. A multi-million selling, festival-headlining act, Faithless are one of Britain’s surviving 1990s dance music juggernauts. 25 years into a career that seemed to have wound down, the absence of such a key presence could mark the final fizzle-out. Instead, All Blessed is a creative resurgence. They sound like a band reinvigorated.
Cards on the table, for this writer Faithless’s initial Nineties gold run of hits was a poppy post-trance blast, but, as time went on, Maxi Jaxx’s platitudinous mindfulness wore thin. Alongside the fact the band gave birth to the milky comfort blanket of Dido’s music (she is Rollo’s sister), it was all rather off-putting. Now, though, they have gently turned a corner. The trite new agey vibe is still there but, happily, dialled back.
Musically, Faithless remain magpie-like, dipping into club styles as suits but the overarching sound is an elegant, trop-housey beach throb. Tunes such as the cuddly, floor-filling title track and the Zapatilla-like ode to loneliness “I Need Someone” especially fit this definition. On the vocal front YouTube poet Suli Breaks is a regular presence, and as close to Maxi Jazz as it gets. In fact, his opener “Poetry” doesn’t bode well, but things soon settle. Singer Nathan Ball gives heft the cheeky love song to studio kit, “Synthesizer”, and dancehall-grime artist Gaika lends bassy authority to the crime-ravaged cityscape of “My Town”
Damien Jurado’s always lovely voice pops up on head-nodding closer “Take Your Time” and Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B gives upbeat dub-houser “Innadance” his royal blessing. Such guests add spicey seasoning to the easy-flowing brew of Faithless’s impeccably produced latest. There are no “Insomnia”s or “We Come 1”s on All Blessed – although the sampledelic “What Shall I Do?” is an enjoyable acid banger – but, at a less frantic MDMA pace, the pair deliver a Balearic set that's mostly warm and likeable.
SOURCE: https://theartsdesk.com/new-music/album-faithless-all-blessed
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