**1/2 Faithless

SUNDAY 8 PM

(Arista)

Faithless came on shrewder than a White House spin doctor with their '97 dance-floor staple "Insomnia," which married a seductively swirling beat to the rave-friendly soundbite "I can't get no sleep." But the track relegated the rest of that fine full-length to underground status, making the UK band seem just another one-hit export. Sunday 8 PM may attract even less notice given its lack of anything as immediate as the breakthrough, despite a game effort with the pleasantly lolling synth-hook-and-breakbeat tune "God Is a DJ."

The album offers a more organic sort of pre-millennium tension than we've gotten from Tricky (an apt comparison given vocalist Maxi Jazz's throaty drawl and the band's surging trip-hop bent). Programmer Rollo and keyboardist Sister Bliss display skills beyond the trip-hop/dance-music axis, adjusting textures and shaping rhythms to align with tastefully sparse guitar contributions, DJ Swamp's skittery scratching, and aching vocals from a woman named Dido on the halting, gospel-referencing "Hem of His Garment." The curious appearance of Boy George (on the pedestrian R&B vamp "Why Go?") suggests that Faithless feel the need to lure back the faithful, yet it only interrupts the otherwise liquid flow on Sunday.

-- Richard Marti