Happy 25th Anniversary to Faithless’ second studio album Sunday 8pm, originally released September 28, 1998.
In the opening moments of “Synthesizer,” the lead single from Faithless’ sixth (and most recent) studio album All Blessed (2020), the disguised voice of the narrator proclaims, “I have no time for this idea that electronic music, it has no soul.” Indeed, if there’s ever been a group that has convincingly refuted this oft-proposed myth of electronic music as wholly devoid of feeling, it’s Faithless.
Founded in London in the halcyon mid-1990s era of dance music’s commercial ascendance and more widespread critical acceptance on a global scale, Faithless began—and prospered—as a collective devoted to bridging the musical gap between the kinetic and melodic strains of electronic music, while expertly incorporating both euphoric and melancholic dimensions to their songs. Forming the band in 1995, co-founders Rollo Armstrong, Sister Bliss, Maxi Jazz and Jamie Catto wasted little time in seducing eager ears with their powerful one-two punch of singles “Salva Mea”—which also introduced the world to the golden-voiced Dido Armstrong, Rollo’s younger sister—and the enduring dancefloor-designed stormer “Insomnia.”
The group’s pair of inaugural singles were not only universally embraced by denizens of clubs worldwide, they impacted cash registers and charts in multiple regions in meaningful ways, including a handful of #1 placements in Europe. However, the singles’ understandable ubiquity in 1995 and 1996 arguably stole at least some of the thunder from their subsequent debut album Reverence, released in April 1996. Well lauded by journalists on the whole, the returns at record shops proved to be relatively modest, though not insignificant by any stretch. Nevertheless, the singles and album established a strong foundation and loyal audience for Faithless, as they reset their focus toward their next musical undertaking.
Emerging two-and-a-half years after Reverence’s arrival in late September 1998, Sunday 8pm was altogether a more holistically and thoughtfully crafted batch of compositions than its precursor, with nary a skippable moment to be heard across its eleven tracks. To my ears, as a lifelong champion of their recorded repertoire, the band’s second studio affair remains their magnum opus, which still inspires in its multi-hued musical textures and, yes, its emotional weight. No wonder, then, that it was deservedly nominated for the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize in 1999 alongside such notable albums as Blur’s 13 (1998), The Chemical Brothers’ Surrender (1999), Underworld’s Beaucoup Fish (1999) and Talvin Singh’s debut album OK (1998), which took home the honors.
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The aforementioned “Salva Mea” and “Insomnia” are indisputable anthems that have lost none of their power decades on from their genesis, but Sunday 8pm boasts two songs that come mighty close to occupying the same elevated space.
Anyone fortunate enough to have ever seen Faithless perform live is well aware that their exquisitely produced stage show is a palpably spiritual experience, curated to awaken the assembled hearts, bodies and souls that bear witness. Hence why the propulsive first single “God Is A DJ” makes for such a fitting introductory entry for the project. For the group’s late lead vocalist-emcee-songwriter Maxi Jazz—whose eloquent soliloquies always possessed shaman-like qualities—and his bandmates, the club is a sacred refuge, offering escapism and sanctuary from the troubles of the mind and the world at large. “This is my church / This is where I heal my hurts / It's in natural grace / Or watching young life shape / It's in minor keys / Solutions and remedies / Enemies becoming friends / When bitterness ends,” he reflects, before repeating the mantra “This is my church” to conclude his opening verse.
In a 2018 interview, a humble, soft-spoken Maxi Jazz explained, “We went on tour (following Reverence) for about a year-and-a-half and we came back and said, ‘right, we’re gonna make another album, but listen, keep your feet on the ground, lightning does not strike twice in the same place. We’re not going to have another hit. Let’s just make the best album we can.’ And boom, ‘God Is A DJ’ is this massive hit and we were like, wow, how did that happen?”
Faithless followed the eight-minute triumph of “God Is A DJ” with the sprawling second single “Take The Long Way Home,’ which clocks in at just north of seven minutes in its original album incarnation. An immersive, sweeping arrangement adds to the poignancy and urgency in Maxi Jazz’s ruminations, as he reflects candidly upon a life lived and the lessons learned, confiding, “I got it sleepin' rough on the streets in the rain / I got it learnin' to share my people's pain / I got it makin' flowers grow in hearts of stone / I got it 'cause I always take the long way home.”
Additional standouts can be found in Sunday 8pm’s more subdued and somber moments, which appear in abundance throughout the album. Featuring supporting vocals by Rachael Brown (who also appears on the soulful, gospel imbued highlight “Hour of Need”), the sobering lament “Bring My Family Back” finds Maxi Jazz examining the vicissitudes of family connections and conflicts over the course of decades.
Boy George guests on the stark, straightforward plea to his lover “Why Go?” while Dido joins Pauline Taylor on the evocative “Hem Of His Garment” and also surfaces on the percussive “Postcards,” in which both she and Maxi Jaxx long for their partners back home while navigating the loneliness of life on the road. Dido subsequently repurposed her vocals from “Postcards” for “My Lover’s Gone,” included on her debut album No Angel (1999), released eight months later.
Revisiting Sunday 8pm this week as I’ve prepared to write this retrospective has admittedly been a bittersweet proposition for me. On the one hand, the moment I press play again on the album-opening instrumental “The Garden,” I’m instantly transported back to my beloved haunts of London, as I bought Sunday 8pm during my first-ever visit to the city back in the fall of 1998 and the album conjures vivid memories of my early experiences there.
On the other hand, just nine months have elapsed since Maxi Jaxx passed away in December of last year at the age of 65, leaving behind a massive void in the world of music. Solace can surely be found, however, in the knowledge that his earnest, erudite voice will endure and his spirit will forever be “contained in the hum between voice and drum.”
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