As far as tell-all titles go, The Dance does not lie. A proven master of the late-night serotonin rush, Faithless is out to recapture the halcyon days of Insomnia on its latest album. As inthemix heard from the group’s resident DJ Sister Bliss, the makings of The Dance began with Mark Knight’s charging 2009 re-rub of Music Matters from To All New Arrivals. “People were so excited to hear Maxi’s voice on the dancefloor again,” Sister Bliss quite rightly told us. “We thought that we just had to do more of that.”

There sure is more of that on The Dance. The album begins with that very thing dancefloors had missed: the solemn, urgent tones of Maxi Jazz over a propulsive, heads-down groove. Opener Not Going Home is straight from the Faithless rulebook, and for that very reason its ubiquity at festivals for the next 12 months is as good as guaranteed. Already attention has turned to which big-name remix is superior – with Armin van Buuren, Eric Prydz, Herve and countless more in the race. On every front, Not Going Home is mission accomplished for the returning heroes Maxi, Sister Bliss and Rollo.

From there, it’s an often uneven but never less than ecstatic journey deep into the night. The Dance is punctuated by plaintive moments, although they’re far thinner on the ground than we’ve come to expect from Faithless albums. Following on the heels of Not Going Home, Feel Me is certainly a risk; refiguring the vocals from a 1982 track by British New Wavers Blancmange into a jaunty, ‘90s-mining electro jam. It’s one of the moments that are sure to divide fans.

The club (or perhaps more correctly, the heaving festival tent) is always close to the fore. The bulk of the tracks push the seven-minute mark, allowing for several slow builds and euphoric peaks. With its undulating groove and tingly vocal from The Temper Trap’s Dougy Mandagi, Comin Around seems the next likely contender for the remix mill. Mandagi dials down his signature falsetto in an understated performance and the tech-house feel of the production certainly feels current. The trancey Tweak Your Nipple (yes, that’s the title), on the other hand, seems purpose-built for the peak of a Faithless live show – either in 2010 or 2001. Can we begrudge them for adhering to a formula when the formula works?

The tail-end of The Dance – much like the tail-end of an all-night session – does have its sketchy moments. Love Is My Condition is unlikely to rank as anyone’s favourite, with Mia Maestro’s ethereal vocals giving it a slight feel of electronic Enya. It bleeds, DJ-style, into another thundering, mass-appeal call to the dancefloor Feelin Good. Regular Faithless collaborator Dido has her voice chopped and echoed over a bassline somewhere between electro-house and throwback prog, before Maxi Jazz comes in with his worldly wordsmithing. As if to leave no doubt The Dance is about the dance, Faithless channels all its might into album closer Sun To Me. Maxi Jazz weaves his verses around a monster of a track that traverses progressive, techno and trance in the space of eight minutes, leaving you shaken at the other side.

In that same interview, Sister Bliss told us, “Usually we release one big record off the album and kind of dine out on that for a decade or so.” With The Dance, they’ll have enough big records to dine out on for several decades. Whether the electronic euphoria comes at the expense of a rounded album will surely be the subject of debate. Breaking up the anthems, though, are surprising turns, like the slow skank of Crazy Bal’Heads, with Maxi Jazz showing off a reggae lilt to his vocals alongside veteran Jonny ‘Itch’ Fox. Revelling in dance music hasn’t meant a dumbing down of the lyrics, either, as familiar themes of political unease, broken relationships and wide-eyed wonder at the world are laced around the beats. Will they get lost in translation when the songs are taken to the peaking masses in festival fields? Probably. Does it matter? Not really.

As the fervour around the prospective return of Faithless to Australia proves, the group’s calling card remains its galvanising performances. Derivative or unconvincing as it may be in parts, this album is going to take the Faithless live show to even more heady heights. It’s built for thousands of raised hands, thundering sound systems and little explosions at the back of the brain. And that, you have to admit, is what the dance is all about.

The Dance is out May 21 on Nates Tunes through Liberator Music.