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Album Review

The Faint
Fasciinatiion Blank.Wav

Article written by James G - Oct 5, 2008

The Faint - Fasciinatiion

‘Get Seduced’ kicks us off, and is a bleepy, swoopy journey into the kind of electropop that makes me think of Freezepop, Interpol and even songs like ‘Take Me I’m Yours’ by the wonderful Squeeze. This song seems to be probing celebrity ubiquity ‘We get seduced so easy’. All set to music which could be the backing as America’s Next Top Model waits, lips-a-trembling as that over-serious dunderhead of a presenter admits ‘I only have one girl’s photograph in my hand…’ Who says Americans can’t do irony?

This is their fifth album over a ten-year period (although their first for four years) and ‘The Geeks Were Right’ gets my award for the best song title of the year thus far. Hey, the song is pretty good, too. Angular. Mathematical. And interesting. Portraying a future where the geek shall inherit the girl. And 'Interesting' is the word that applies to the remainder of ‘Fasciinatiion’ too. Indeed, the most ‘robotic’ track here, ‘Fulcrum And Lever’, rather than being a firm of solicitors giving advice on ‘no win, no fee’ personal accident cases, is a superb, but very strange song, dealing with ‘strange – phenomenon’…

‘Forever Growing Centipedes’ and ‘Fish In A Womb’ continue the super song title motif, the latter with a lyric like ‘That slice on my neck/ it’s oozing/ jelly clear as glass/ between my fingers and my thumb/ it’ll stretch for inches between the bones’. I see.

‘A Battle Hymn For Children’ wraps things up nicely, full of androids pulling corks alongside a military beat, whilst questioning the morality of any war. Indeed, a cerebral, questioning lyrical tone throughout, saves this album from being just another retro bleepfest.

I must admit I hadn’t heard much by The Faint before this album, but that least half of the ten tracks here have immediate appeal. I’m looking forward to listening to this many more times. Fasciinatiing.

Links:
http://www.thefaint.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thefaint