It’s been a long time since Omaha NE Synth-Punkers, the Faint, released a new album. Four years to be exact. Four years to develop hunger pangs for anything new The Faint might release, be it remixes or b-sides. Snacks of sound that us rabid fans pick up with a starving ferocity. But finally, The Faint have released a new album for those of us salivating for new material to feed on; “Fasciinatiion”. This time around, it has been prepared entirely in house. Now independent of long time label Saddle Creek, The Faint have produced, written, performed, recorded, art directed, and released the album on their new BLANK.WAV label. Now that you’ve got all the facts, is the album low on carbs or a filling meal?
If the meaty bass that kicks in on “Get Seduced” is any indication, “Fasciinatiion” is a virtual smorgasbord of sounds. Some are familiar, like the distorted basslines and inside out keyboards seared into our memories from The Faint’s 2004 release “Wet From Birth”.Todd Fink’s vocals remain as metallic and serpentine as ever churning out some of the best vocal hooks and melodies in the Faint’s song catalog. The most notable aspect of the new album is how deep and rich The Faint’s songwriting process has become, there’s not a song on here that’s not as compelling lyrically as it is sonically. Most songs feature fun yet intellectual hypotheses on how society is doing and where we’re headed, while a few others explore our perception and our conflicts, be they internal, personal or international.
The Faint have always written songs about visceral things (sex, violence, death) that somehow come off as both smart and catchy, but they’ve reached to new heights in terms of taking complex issues and digesting them into 3 minute jams. Particularly on “Machine in the Ghost”, where Todd Fink takes responsibility for his own actions and sets off on a quest to understand the origin of the universe by asking a multitude of people and groups, from atheists and the pope to acid heads and physicists who all concede that “They don’t know”. That’s pretty deep for a song you can dance to, that also might be the Faint’s most lighthearted song ever.
Another example of digesting concepts into songs is the brilliant metaphor used on “Forever Growing Centipedes”, where people are described as long snake-like creatures that change and grow with each choice, like the snake game, and like in that game when you get too long, you run into problems. As for pushing the boundaries of their sound the track “Fulcrum and Lever” adopts the storytelling style that Todd Fink garnered so much respect for with songs like “Violent” and “Desperate Guys” and like a robot he raps about when he tried to fly when he was nine and broke a limb. An ominous atmosphere is given to the song by a mega-bass boosted keyboard and the creepiest use of a speak and spell in the history of electronics. That’s not all, the unlikely anthem “Fish in the Womb” will have the geeks waving their cell phones in unison.
If any album can please even passing fans of The Faint from “Blank Wave Arcade” to “Danse Macabre” to “Wet From Birth” it’s “Fascination”. “Fasciinatiion” features song to song fades like “Blank Wave Arcade”, cold mechanical sounds and themes like “Danse Macabre” and the more organic punk-funk style exhibited on “Wet From Birth”. Because of this variety and quality I find myself listening to the whole album over and over again, unlike some of their previous albums where I would skip certain songs. My only complaint is that the album is too short, it leaves me hungry for more. Luckilly my stereo provides as many seconds and thirds as I want and I don’t even have to ask anyone to pass the mashed potatoes.
The Faint – Machine in the Ghost
The Faint Official Website (There’s a video for “The Geeks Were Right” here!)
