Chase & Status - Blind Faith

If you thought that Drum ‘n’ Bass had all but died along with the nineties, then Chase & Status have slowly been amassing popular support to prove otherwise. With ‘Blind Faith’ they’re amounting their biggest challenge on our earholes yet, and recruiting Liam Bailey to provide some soulful tones to the proceedings, although it’s hard to shake the feeling that there’s very little soul here.

While it feels like their biggest single, with it being unavoidable on Radio One and plenty of adverts being slapped on the internet, it also feels astonishingly hollow. Liam Bailey’s vocals are adequate, but buried so far beneath the tune that they have little impact on the song. However, lyrics like ‘It’s a blind faith, a cruel waste, so I know I need this sweet sensation’ aren’t exactly going to change your life. They’re like a mouldy plaster slapped onto the song.

Yet, its well-worn template of every nineties club track you’ve ever regretted dancing to, is also its biggest strength. Its police siren bass, the strings that sound like ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ made by The Chemical Brothers instead of The Verve, and Yolanda Quartey’s booming refrain of ‘Sweet sensation’ are mashed together in such way that it’s minor miracle that the song doesn’t actually explode.

Compared to their older material, ‘Blind Faith’ is just about pushing their style forward. There’s nothing offensive or edgy here and it’ll be interesting to see how older fans will react to the nostalgia of the chorus. Meanwhile, the emotional drive behind earlier single ‘Pieces’ has been wiped clean and replaced with meaningless, empty, sentiment. It’s exactly the type of single that is designed to draw in the biggest amount of punters, but at least it does this rather effectively.