No Roots:Faithless

Title: No Roots

Label: Arista

Genre: House-Soul

Rating: 5.9 of 7

Have you ever come upon an album that just confuses the hell out of you? Not only am I confused about what single genre Faithless could possibly be, but I cannot even decide if I am into the album or not. Faithless, with producers Rollo and Sister Bliss at the core, is traditionally an electro-pop duo from across the sea, but with No Roots, completely shatter any notion of barriers between types of music. This album is an insane hybrid of house/techno, soul, hip-hop, reggae and world music that is not only pleasant to the ears and feet (e.g. danceable), but also causes some creepy introspection into regions of my soul that I was not even sure existed. Essentially this is one cohesive album, broken down into 7 thoughts, which are again broken down into 14 tracks with an additional re-mix thrown on as a capper. The music keeps its roots in house, with different styles sprinkled on top. The vocals are shared between an array of different artists including LSK (cool reggae-ish style, #1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14), Maxi Jazz (soft hip-hop/urban British, #1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14), Dido (yes, that Dido, #1 and 9) and even Nina Simone appears on #4.

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