The Top 100 Songs of 2011 -- #38: "Blind Faith" -- Chase & Status feat. Liam Bailey

After gaining modest acclaim with debut More Than a Lot in 2008, British drum and bass production duo Chase & Status roared back in 2011 with No More Idols, regarded as one of the biggest electronic albums of the year. All in all, seven singles found their way onto the UK's Singles Chart. A good year? Yeah, I'd say so.

"Blind Faith" was the album's third single, released in January. It's also, along with earlier single "Let You Go" (an entrant on my countdown last year), among the best the duo has ever produced, both for themselves and otherwise.

Featuring an exceptional vocal from rising star Liam Bailey, "Blind Faith" is a club track for the ages, one that was probably inescapable in Great Britain and would have been in America, too... had Chase & Status broken out in the country.

Its chorus is perhaps its strongest suit. Loleatta Holloway's 1980 disco track "Love Sensation" is transformed into an enormous club melody. Just listen to the '90s-ness ooze from her vocal. Holloway may not have recorded the vocal in the '90s, but its place in the era would have been cemented had it been set to music like this.



Along the way, the duo uses elements of house, dubstep and drum and bass to send the song to the stars. In a year of club music (and really, just clubs in general) glorification, here's where the genre hit its highest note. Brilliant production, and staggeringly good vocal performances.