The Faint: Fasciinatiion
The Faint are 'fasciinated' on album five
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Friday, 26, Sep 2008 03:23
blank.wav, out September 29th.
In a nutshell...
Cult favourites the Faint make a lacklustre return.
What's it all about?
Fifth album proper from disaffected electro chaps the Faint.
Who's it by?
After releasing one album of non-descript, tight-trousered Saddle Creek indie (which clearly showed their association with then label-mate and former member Conor Oberst), the Faint came up with two of the best dystopian, angry, and incredibly danceable electro-punk records ever made.
Songs such as Agenda Suicide and The Conductor combined stroppy political commentary with harsh, sterile beats to produce something a bit like dancing to Brave New World.
In May they announced that they were splitting with Saddle Creek, and are releasing this - their fifth album - on their own blank.wav label.
As an example...
"Egghead boys with thin white legs/They got modified features and software brains/But that's what the girls like/The geeks were right." - The Geeks Were Right
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
This album offers little that that the last three haven't; if Danse Macabre< wasn't enough to get them large-scale success, it seems unlikely that Fasciinatiion will.
What the others say
"There's nothing revelatory here ... But it's still a good collection of songs with interesting lyrics and sounds. If you're a fan already, it'll make you happy." - Audiohenge.com
So is it any good?
After 1999's Blank Wave Arcade and 2001's Danse Macabre, 2004 effort Wet From Birth was a disappointment, and sadly Fasciinatiion doesn't quite constitute a return to form. In some ways, it seems that they've gone backwards, creating something similar to their first album, just with Worked Up So Sexual style beats stuck on top.
However, it has to be said that the Faint are always at their best live: on record their songs can tend towards the sterile, lacking the nervous energy that makes their live shows so intoxicating. Their talent is in the combination of electro and edgy, angular post-punk, but the studio work tends to emphasise the former at the expense of the heavy guitar lines. Live, the two genres are blended seamlessly, but on this album - more than the previous two - the modest guitar makes the whole thing a bit insipid.
The lyrics address much the same issues as its predecessors: celebrity culture, troubled relationships, the politics of war. But the band don't seem to have anything new to say on these topics. A notable exception is the last song, A Battle Hymn for Children, which paints the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as video games spun hideously out of control: "You know how hate takes shape/Don't hide those guilty eyes/You gave us guns for toys/Imposed beliefs, then pride."
This isn't a bad album: if it was the first Faint record I'd heard, I'd be thrilled; but knowing what they're capable of, it's a slight disappointment. The twitchy caffeinated paranoia which drove their previous work seems to have dissipated a little, leaving the claustrophobic anxiety but lacking the pulsating, crazed release.
6/10
Hannah Tipple