The Faint: Fasciinatiion

It's

been four years since The Faint's Wet From Birth, and a lot has happened

in the interim: For one, the band ditched longtime label Saddle Creek, opting

to produce Fasciinatiion all by itself. (Perhaps the extra I's stand for extra

independence) For another, the nation's renewed taste for new wave—which

the Omaha group helped launch—has waned in favor of poppy, upbeat bands

that sound more at home in the sunshine. While Fasciinatiion is hardly neon-coated,

it's dominated by a surprising aura of playfulness: Every instrument has been

fussed-over and stretched beyond recognition, resulting in an otherworldly

palate of sounds that borders on comical. Singer Todd Baechle has abandoned his

usual sex-and-death motif for oblique, fanciful musings on childhood and space

aliens: "Get Seduced" and its tiresome "celebrity culture" riff aside ("How rad

is it living under microscope… / Let me buy close-up tabloid shots of your

cellulite"), Baechle's tongue-in-cheek detachment hits its stride with "The

Geeks Were Right," and he maintains that sense of arch alienation aided by

vocal processors that seem to suspend every syllable in liquid nitrogen. The

group recaptures its signature dark-wave bounce on the 1-2-3 punch of "Mirror

Error," "Forever Growing Centipedes," and "I Treat You Wrong," but it's clear

from the glitchy patchwork of "Fulcrum And Lever" and the goofy surrealism of

"Fish In A Womb" that The Faint is intent on edging its way out of the dance

club and into the light.