Track Listing

1. Bombs Feat. Harry Collier
2. Spiders, Crocodiles & Kryptonite Feat. Robert Smith
3. Music Matters Feat. Cass Fox
4. Nate�s Tune
5. I Hope
6. Last This Day Feat. Dido
7. To All New Arrivals Feat. Harry Collier
8. Hope & Glory Feat. One Eskimo
9. A Kind of Peace Feat. Cat Power
10. The Man In You
11. Emergency

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69472 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-27
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Faithless's fifth studio album, To All New Arrivals, is a tribute of sorts to the brand new babies that band-members Rollo and Sister Bliss recently (and separately) brought into the world. Lead single "Bombs", with its chugging, understated beat, social analysis and decidedly anti-war stance, makes for an impressive start. From there the album gets a little bogged down in the rose-tinted sentimentality of 'new parent' syndrome. "Spiders, Crocodiles and Kryptonite" has someone uttering childish inanities in a silly voice (its saved by an extended segment of the Cure's "Lullaby" - but only just); the uplifting "Music Matters" (with Cass Fox) is marred by mawkish lyrics; "I Hope" offers similarly trite messages of parental hope, and the title track plots sounds like a song for Children In Need. All this is doubtless well meant, but comes across as naïve, even vacuous in places. Fortunately the music fares better. Aside from the wishy-washy "Last This Day" (with Dido) and the nondescript "Nate's Tune," the robust "Hope & Glory", the wonderful "A Kind Of Peace" (with Cat Power), the catchy "The Man In You" and the bristling finale, "Emergency", show that Faithless are still capable of writing rousing club sounds. --Paul Sullivan

CD Description
'To All New Arrivals' is the fifth studio album proper fromtrance superband Faithless. An act that are as comfortable selling out arenas as they are playing clubs, this album finds the group in fine form, with collaborations from Cat Power and Robert Smith helping the band to push the borders between dance and rock to new and exciting levels. Includes the single 'Bombs'.

Customer Reviews

A lost sense of direction
I understand as well as anyone that Faithless are no longer the club busting dance band that we knew in the 1990s. The band are maturing as musicans and taking their music into different directions from what they have achieved previously. However, and this is quite a big point, this album does not develop their style from No Roots.

No Roots signalled a move to a more melodic tone with more instrumentals and an increased participation from outside artists to the Faithless story. Different styles of music were experimented with and in my opinion they pulled off a change in direction with No Roots without losing what made Faithless popular. What I feel with To All New Arrivals is that they've lost sight of what they want to achieve: the album congratulates each band member on their own personal experiences too much whether from having a child to their views on politics.

Neither does the album move Faithless on musically. Nate's Tune which is a rare highlight on the album, could have fitted in on Sunday 8PM or No Roots, quite easily. Spiders, Crocodiles and Kryptonite is quite simply one of the weakest songs the band have ever written. Bombs goes back to the point I made above: Maxi Jazz congratulates himself on being right about Iraq but why does he have to emphasis this point? The early Faithless albums had a subtle and understandable point but it was not overtly political. I do not need Maxi Jazz telling me about Iraq; it's there for all of us to see with out own eyes.

However there are some plus points: A Kind of Peace is the strongest track on the album, deversedly so. Cat Power provides a beautiful, complimentary, voice to the music and sets a nice downbeat sound for the end of the album. Hope and Glory is more what I expect from a Faithless album as is Emergency.

To conclude: Faithless have not quite lost their way but they need to return to their roots if they are to continue to influence the genre. This album will be remembered as their weakest and is a poor development to the different and pleasing No Roots. Sunday 8PM is still the seminal work; a height which they have not scaled on this particular album.

Bring back the real Faithless please!!
After patiently waiting for the arrival of this much anticipated fifth studio album for several months I have to report that it was a complete anti-climax! The album appears to have been written to advertise the bands two new arrivals and the whole thing seems to be softened down from what we are used to from the worlds finest live dance act. The heart and soul of the group is Maxi Jazz and he simply doesn't feature enough, instead an array of guest vocalists dominate the album. Having said that, the album does have a decent opening with single Bombs but is followed by hideous track Spiders, Crocodiles & Kryptonite which not only contains farcical child-like lyrics and Robert Smith guesting which I hated, but ends with an annoying baby talking segment which is embarrassing to say the least. Music Matters is better but hardly sticks in the memory, this is followed by instrumental Nate's Tune and I Hope which has more references to children and seems to end just as it is getting going and then Last This Day which sounds like a lullaby and features Dido (Oh please let it end) Things start to look up when To All New Arrivals kicks in but again the lyrics are bizarre, Maxi reeling off facts about poverty and child diseases, its like a television appeal for help. Hope & Glory which is a far more memorable track in a more uplifting mood raises the tempo but once again has baby voices tagged on the end, why? A Kind of Peace features the albums sixth guest vocalist Cat Power and then comes The Man In You which in my opinion is the best track here, its original, funky and has Maxi's best vocals, I like this tune. Closing track Emergency is Ok too but again Maxi is missing. the album ends and I am left feeling empty and disappointed, where are the thumping dance tracks that I jumped to at Marley park in August? If you're new to faithless and want to hear what they are capable of, go out tomorrow and buy Reverence or any of the other albums since but leave this on the shelf. I am a huge fan of the group and I'm looking forward to seeing them again in March, I just hope they don't play too many tracks of this album and leave the baby noises at home!

Requires time but rewarding.
I am an follower of Faithless from the start, going to clubs to dance to Imsomnia. So my initial responce to this CD was bad. Reverence had "Imsomnia", Sunday 8 pm had "God is a DJ" and Outrospective had "We come 1". On this CD we do not have that defining tune in the famous Faithless style. But neither did No Roots.

But Faithless CD's have never been uniform, like Prodigy or most other bands. They have always been made out of diffrent songs that make a good whole and all their CD's have been better than Forever Faithless, their greatest hits, even if that has all the hits in one.

In To All New Arrivals Faithless has steped up politically, a continuation from No Roots (Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction) but it has always been there as has their sentimental side. Children, where are we going and how great have we become - is the theme and as a father I confess the CD appeals to me.

The CD improves with every listening. Dido's song "Last This Day" is magnificent. Every time I listen to its lyrics it brings tears to my eyes and stirs up strong emotions. It is a wonderful song.

To all new arrivals is probably the strongest dance tune while a narrator gives horrific statistics on the sitiation "In the World Today". A vaguely feel that the same statistics were served in a similar order in the film "The Girl in the Cafe" but we cannot be reminded too often.

Otherwise To all new arrivals flows much like Faithless has before. They are borrowing more and have more artists featured and some times this works and in the case of Spiders, Crocodiles & Kryptonite has annoying parts (IMHO) but generally this works.

The CD grows on you with every listening and Last This Day is a masterpiece. It is still Faithless, but a evolved Faithless and no more one defining dance tune.