For the nostalgic twentysomething that has wet dreams about a DJ with the soundtracks to Super Mario Bros. 2 and Contra on the turntables, Omaha’s retro-wavers The Faint churn out their fifth full-length, “Fasciinatiion.” A full three years before all that Postal Service hoopla, The Faint were backing their songs with beeps, boops, voice-modification and the classic cheap Casio keyboard synth sound (with the pop savvy of a late-1980s Ric Ocasek hit), a pretty novel concept back in 1999 that has since been copied hundreds of times since. These days, the Saddle Creek quintet sound like a campy version of Depeche Mode while still maintaining some dead-serious subject matter, like a serious discussion of metaphysics (“Machine in the Ghost”) and the relative correlation between religion and violence (“A Battle Hymn for Children”). It’s awkward at times, trying to figure out whether to focus on the lyrics or the kooky music, but that also ensures that it works in both your headphones and on the dance floor. (Andy Seifert)
Cool Aid: A Review of Situation Chicago 2 The album does an outstanding job of bringing home the staggering sonic and stylistic range we deny ourselves when we return too often to the same genre well.
