Fasciinatiion

The Faint | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 5, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: BLANK.WAV
• ASIN: B001ASII8C
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,802 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The Faint are set to release their first album in four years ''Fasciinatiion'' through their own, newly-formed label, blank.wav. ''Fasciinatiion'', The Faint's fifth album, is the first in the band's ten-year history to be written, recorded, produced, art directed and released entirely on their own. ''Fasciinatiion'' is an album that draws on many defining facets of The Faint's sound, while remaining completely different from anything else they've put out. A record whose themes include predictions and the future, tabloid culture, the allure of what may never be, childhood lost and more, ''Fasciinatiion'' sounds as if it's been beamed in from a satellite whose sole purpose is observing, and making sense of, the details of every day existence. In certain ways, the album is the most mechanical and precise of the band's work: The vocals sounds less human than ever before; the bass lines are more mangled, keyboards spiral and squeal out of control; electronic pings and stabs invade the melodies; the lyrical anxiety and disdain of previous albums pervades almost every song on ''Fasciinatiion''. Opener ''Get Seduced'' is The Faint at their best, the song's critique of celebrity culture matched with one of the finest choruses they've ever written. First single, ''The Geeks Were Right'', draws on the tenets of futurist literature and sliding, siren-call guitars. ''Fulcrum and Lever'' marries ambient noise with space references, alienation and a stuttering, flexing beat, while ''Mirror Error'' explores identity and consciousness within its perfect, propulsive electro-pop. Closer ''A Battle Hymn for Children'' flinches with nervous rhythms against resentment of the future to be inherited and keyboards that sound like flailing voices (or is it flailing voices that sound like keyboards? On ''Fasciinatiion'', one can never tell).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 Stars... Where is the fascination?, September 2, 2008

By 

Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fasciinatiion (Audio CD)

I've been a huge fan of the Faint since their 2001 break-out album "Dance Macabre" (can it really have been that long already?). After a remix album of that, the Omaha, NE band came back in 2004 with "Wet From Birth", which was good but not at the same level as "Dance Macabre" for me. Now, after a long break, finally comes the band's 5th studio album.

"Fasciinatiion" (10 tracks, 35 min.) starts off with a tentative "Get Seduced". The album really gets into high gear with "The Geeks Were Right", which surprisingly features electric guitars upfront in the mix, but a great song altogether. "Machine in the Ghost" is equally entrancing, even if it isn't very danceable. In fact, not a lot songs on here are danceable. There are a lot of mid-tempo electronic-needling tracks such as "Fulcrum and Lever" and "I Treat You Wrong". "Mirror Error" is my favorite track on here, an up-tempo track that bursts with energy.

But overall, this album is somewhat of a let-down. After a 4 year break from "Wet From Birth", the band still seems to wanna decide where it really wants to go. A lot of the songs feel tentative. This is not a bad listen (and at 35 min. it clips by in no time) but in comparison to the sublime "Dance Macabre", this album falters.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like taking a walk through a harmonized malfunctioning computer, November 29, 2008

By 

Nicholas Riedman (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fasciinatiion (Audio CD)

At first listen, I was not impressed with this album. It seemed to me like Todd Fink and crew "dumbed down" the album after their amazing Wet From Birth. But over the weeks I kept finding myself listening to Fasciinatiion. It finally occurred to me that the album isn't dumbed down at all, if anything its much more technical. Gone are the sweeping string sections from Wet From Birth and in are catchy bleeps blips and bloops to keep dragging you in for more. One thing that makes The Faint so great is that are able to do so much with their music, while retaining their signature sound. This is definitely a new direction for the band, and it should be, as they parted from Saddle Creek and their old studio to branch out on their own with blank.wav records and a brand new home to record.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as previous releases, September 12, 2008

By 

mmmmm (Northeast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fasciinatiion (MP3 Download)

I own the rest of The Faint's releases, and I don't think this quite stacks up. I agree with the reviewer who said that it is a letdown. It just doesn't have the same whateveritis that grabs you from their other releases. It's not a bad album by any means - still better than a lot of stuff out there - but it just doesn't live up to the expectations set by their previous work.