The Faint: Fasciinatiion

The Faint: Fasciinatiion

2008

blank.wav Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Get Seduced  2. The Geeks Were Right  3. Machine in the Ghost  4. Fulcrum and Lever  5. Psycho  6. Mirror Error  7. I Treat You Wrong  8. Forever Growing Centipedes  9. Fish in a Womb  10. A Battle Hymn for Children

Again, sorry for the lack of posts since December. We're in the middle of a hellish move and my albums are scattered all over oblivion. Not to mention, a component of my stereo setup is MIA and I haven't been able to track it down yet, so I've been vinyl-free since Saturday. I'm jonsin', man! JONSIN'! Listening to a smattering of music here and there on the computer (when no one else is using it) through the world's tinniest speakers, enduring unending youtube ads. (I talk to these folks who don't own any physical media and I'm just too old to get it. I can't take ads anymore! I'm in the middle of rocking out to some Ramones on Spotify and an ad pops up every 3 songs! AGGGHHH! And how do you download stuff without a virus making your computer grind to a halt until it eventually dies a slow, painful death. AGGGGHHH! Or having to download your music library every time your computer dies. AGGGHHHHH! Or having an mp3 player that sounds like a swishy piece of tin and a 2 hour battery life. AGGGGHHHHH! Or a phone with the same problems but also sets off an alarm that interrupts the song every time somebody posts a picture of their baby online. AGGGHHHH! (end parenthesized old man rant)).

It's all starting to come together though...The moving process should be done by the end of next weekend. Then I'll be settled in for the long haul (oh, I'm never moving again. Each time I have to do it, I hate it a little more).

But I didn't invite you guys over to bitch about hauling 500-lb crates of records down three flights of stairs (suddenly gets the appeal of digital music), I invited you guys to talk about The Faint's "Faciinatiion"...

Oh, whew...What a relief. The Faint are good again...

I had a pretty dim view of "Wet From Birth," but this album brought me back into the fold. It's great. It retains much of the harsh brightness of "Wet From Birth" but loses the needless clutter and general dopiness and just focuses on making straight-forward new wave rock. Actually, there's still a bit of dopiness but when used sparingly, it ends up being sorta endearing. One example is "Fulcrum and Lever," where Todd Fink dramatically recreates a childhood injury, but he gives a genuinely tension-filled performance that actually gets you interested in the outcome of the story. Love it.

And "The Geeks Were Right" possibly dethrones "Agenda Suicide" as the ultimate Faint track. Just a solid, supremely catchy vocal melody over a constantly evolving synth-rock backing that keeps you engaged and dancing for the song's 3 minute duration. Now that's how you write a brilliant blank wave single (Actually, now that I think about it, it sounds very similar to "Agenda Suicide." Like if the shadowy city where "Agenda Suicide" takes place is suddenly flooded with bright light). Oh, another part of the album that I love is the tinkly keyboard solo in "Machine in the Ghost" where it suddenly sounds like "Revenge of the Nerds."

If you squint your ears a bit, you can almost imagine "Psycho" or "I Treat You Wrong" on the radio, provided radio wasn't a vast "Don't Stop Believing'-ravaged wasteland. For all the trash I talked about "Wet From Birth," I have to hand it to these guys. This is a totally worthwhile album and very nearly a return to form. I know the band has put out one more album since this (2014's "Doom Abuse") but I haven't gotten around to listening to it yet. Maybe I'll check it out one day and let you know what I think...

Hey. Let's listen to some music. Here's "The Geeks Were Right" by The MF-ing Faint. Enjoy it!

The Faint: Wet From Birth

The Faint: Wet From Birth

2004

Saddle Creek Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Desperate Guys  2. How Could I Forget?  3. I Disappear  4. Southern Belles in London Sing  5. Erection  6. Paranoiattack  7. Dropkick the Punks  8. Phone Call  9. Symptom Finger  10. Birth


The super disappointing follow up to "Danse Macabre." Damn. What happened?

I remember winning a Best Buy gift card at work, so I went and picked up some new listens. I remember snagging this and the latest album by The Fall (which at the time was "Country on the Click." Now that's a fucking killer album!) and maybe some others. I loved the deliciously dark and hook filled "Danse Macabre" and was hungry for some shadowy synth-pop action. I remember putting this on and making it about one minute into the bright and dopey opener "Desperate Guys" and wondering what I ever heard in this band. Todd Fink no longer sounded like Simon Le Bon's evil twin. He was suddenly remarkably irritating (not to mention even he sounded bored with his own shtick). "Bleh," I say! "BLEH!"

For the most part the album just has an underwhelming, routine feel to it. I don't hate "How Could I Forget?" or "Paranoiattack" but I also don't especially care about them either. Only a few songs are truly awful, like the endless, stone-dumb slog "Erection" or "Birth" which is so deeply dopey it needs to be heard to be believed:

"In the beginning there was semen,
In a deep mound of flesh,
And a crest that traveled,
On a wave of their own mess...

My brains wouldn't fit,
Through her organ of sex,
An incision was made,
With a scalpel and mess..."

It's so gross and boring that it makes me want to puke.

 But in the midst of all this nothingness, the band does deliver one of their all-time best songs with "Southern Belles in London Sing," where suddenly  the prospect of a bright, gleaming Faint shows a world of promise. A new romantic synth-pop confection that reminds me of some overly swooning 80's European pop single. Like something Ultravox might have pulled off. Really lush, mature and well composed, which makes the transition to "Erection" immediately after all the more painful (as my face digs deeply into my palm).

There are a few other promising tracks here, like "I Disappear" where the band's slight shift towards straightforward rock works well. And "Dropkick the Punks" has some decent energy that I wish they would have explored a bit more. Oh, well...They can't all be masterpieces. Download "Southern Belles in London Sing," "I Disappear" and "Dropkick the Punks" move onto their next album and don't look back...

Here's "Southern Belles in London Sing" by The Faint...Enjoy...

The Faint: Danse Macabre

 The Faint: Danse Macabre

2001

Saddle Creek Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Agenda Suicide  2. Glass Danse  3. Total Job  4. Let the Poison Spill from Your Throat  5. Your Retro Career Melted  6. Posed to Death  7. The Conductor  8. Violent  9. Ballad of a Paralysed Citizen


Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Between hanging out at hospitals and getting ready for a big move, the blog just wasn't happening in December and I doubt I'll be back in the swing of it until late January. But I'm hoping to fully re-immerse myself in cold beer, loud records and white-knuckled blogging in 2017. After all, the Friday Night Record Party is now entering its fifth year, so my goal is to make this the best year yet. And to kick off this year of awesomeness, I'm going to quickly half-ass a post on some largely forgotten early 2000's dance-rock album in-between loads of laundry...

(P.S.This is a photo of laundry I stole from another website. My actually dirty laundry is much bloodier and full of holes.)

(alternate cover featuring a still from Ric Ocasek's acclaimed performance of Swan Lake)

My good friend Russ got me into this band. It was always pumping out of his car stereo back in 2001-2002, and I dug it instantly. It sounded like a darker Duran Duran. Like if "The Chauffeur" was Duran Duran's starting point rather than an outlier. I think they used to be an emo band or something (I still haven't heard their first album) but switched to this dancier direction on their 1999 album, "Blank Wave Arcade" (which I don't own but have heard and enjoy very much).

This album has a fantastic opening track, "Agenda Suicide" that is a masterpiece of synthpop menace. Despite parts of it sounding exactly like Genesis' "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight," the song brings to mind a hooligan version of Duran Duran roaming the streets after midnight, glowering through your suburban window. I remember this song just blowing the doors off of other similar dance-rock shit that was glutting the new release shelf during the 2000's. Nothing came close. The pinnacle of 2000's dance rock, hands down.

Perfect opening tracks are a double-edged sword however. Sure I was drawn in immediately and pledged my undying allegiance to this band within five seconds of hearing the album, but there's also nothing that quite lives up to this song on the album, although the entire album comes pretty damn close. There are no bum tracks here and some of them come very close to re-capturing "Agenda Suicide"'s glory...

Other highlights include "Posed to Death" and "The Conductor." I effing love "The Conductor." Now, this is going to be hard to imagine, but picture Marilyn Manson delivering a truly great song. A pitch black metallic stomp that alternates between robot verses and a humanistic (and mightily) anthemic chorus. They definitely tap into something awesomely malevolent on this track. Always gets me pumped. 
 
Really, the whole damn thing rules and makes me want to dance (in as cool and detached a manner as possible). If you're into the seedier side of 80's new wave (Gary Newman, Soft Cell, the aforementioned darker side of Duran Duran) you'll go nuts over this. They really do distill everything that was great about all that old stuff and turn it into something new(ish)...

Let's listen to some much...Here's "Agenda Suicide" by The Faint. Enjoy...