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| The Faint |
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Line-up: Clark Baechle - Drums Todd Baechle - Vocals, keyboards Dapose - Guitars Joel Petersen - Bass Jacob Thiele - Keyboards "Well, the 80s are over. But, just when you thought you were safe from the relentless boing and bing of synth-rock, along comes an 80s revival. Every band seems to have a keyboardist now and are using them for more than subtle accompaniment. Check out Antarctica for moody synth-rock, or the Superheroes from the Netherlands, or The Faint. The Faint owe more to Thomas Dolby and Duran Duran, and maybe New Order, than anyone else I can think of. They play that 80s synth-rock with some darker atmosphere, almost combining a gothic nature into the songs without making them sound oppressive. (...) You've just got to check out The Faint. They're darkly throw-back to a time that no one thought anyone would want to throw-back to. Fun, danceable synth-rock with a dark side. Highly recommended.
-- Delusion of Adequacy
1998: Media Just click here! to send us your review of this album 1999: Blank Wave Arcade "Gaining recent publicity for their excellent album 'Dance Macabre' and its subsequent remix, The Faint are on their way to ushering in the neo-eighties movement. This reviewer has decided it's time to go back and find out what the members of the Faint were doing on their second album, Blank Wave Arcade. This hard-to-find release is a gem, albeit with some rough edges. Found here are the band’s first trials with the electronic sound that has become its own (Media, The Faint’s first album, was stuck in the alt-rock sound). Lyrically, Blank-Wave Arcade is lacking real focus, but Todd Baechle (lead singer) puts some spirit into his delivery, making the listener want to scream along with him about exotic dancers, cars, sex, and other look-for-the-hidden-meaning subjects. Look for the great, rumbling, grinding riffs and backbeats caught in the superfluous noise. These, coupled with the great vocals, make this record a treat for both fans of eighties music and dance/electronica. Recommended for followers of The Faint, but know that this album is not for everyone."
-- nate holbrook, music.n-chicken.net
 2001:
Danse Macabre
 "With pulsating beats, synth-saturated songs, and some robotic effects on the vocals, the band has delved further down the electronic, dark-wave, dance music path on this album. And although I like their last album, 'Blank-Wave Arcade,' better, particularly for keeping a foot firmly planted in their indie rock roots, this album has much better song writing and production. The lyrics are far more developed as well. Although all of the tracks are great, The Conductor always seems to get stuck in my head, but in a good way . . . especially the chanting of 'Control' at the end. You can’t go wrong with Agenda Suicide either. The song Violent has cold, mechanical drum beats countered with the deep, dark, trembling sound of the cello, compliments of Gretta Cohen from Cursive. It’s a very interesting pairing of sounds that I haven’t heard very often, and it is done quite well. (...) This is a dance album for people that didn’t know they liked dance albums. If you’ve ever been interested in Depeche Mode or early Nine Inch Nails, you’ll be in for a treat. "
-- Michael Buchmiller, Hand Carved Magazine
¾ 2004:
Wet from Birth
"The album starts off with a Desperate Guys, a song featuring a flagrant violin solo that morphs into Todd Baechle’s distinctive vocals. The song has a trance like beat that uses effects such as echo’s, repeating verses, and complete pauses in sound, to add the dance effect of the track. Next is How Could I forget. It’s pumping rock that blends harmonic vocals and involved electronic additives to mesh a sound that is absolute delicious chaos. Track three I Disappear has a sound crammed with dance-infused rock, which is hard-core, hard-hitting and full of bass. It starts off with a boisterous bass riff that leads into an impeccably-timed conjunction of keyboards incorporated with a beat that is hypnotic and entrancing. Southern Belles in London Sing is my favorite of the album and also what I consider to be an enigma track. It begins with quiet and angelic sounds of strings that quickly explodes into a rapid orchestra of sound. It’s beautiful, immaculate, and sounds righteous in nature. The last track Birth is interesting yet at the same time the message seems too obvious and self-explanatory for the general theme or direction of the album. The preceding tracks leave you wondering or pondering the message to be conveyed, and this one undoubtedly leaves nothing to the imagination. With lyrics such as 'In the beginning there was semen, in a deep mound of flesh' it unmistakably takes one through the process of child birth. Following with ever so apparent lyrics such as 'I should have noticed the beauty and not how it hurt, wet like a cherry in the bloodbath of birth' leaves nothing to the mind power of ones own perceptibility. Ok, so Electro, Synth-Pop music, really isn’t what I prefer to listen to, but The Faint is so multi-faceted it can’t be grouped into just one genre of sound. And yeah, the album is quite short, barely squeaking over 34 minutes, but overall the music is fervent and meticulous in detail, and what is lacking in length is made up in design. The fact is the record is dynamic, energetic, and the sound is high-powered. It’s a vital, eruptive album that stands uniquely on its own."
-- Christine Beals, onetimesone.com, 9/04
2008:
Fasciination
Tracklisting: 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 "After a decade on Saddle Creek, this is the Faint's first album completely written and produced on their own. Rather than breeding a newfound excitement within the music, however, it has really only instilled a sense of complacency. It's not that songs like Forever Growing Centipedes, Fulcrum and Lever and Mirror Error are complete failures, but their half-developed ideas don't fully connect or inspire repeat listens. While rich in sonic playfulness, Fasciination is hit or miss in a very disappointing way. The guitar-driven, keyboard-heavy Psycho, on the other hand, proves to be a fun little romp, while Fish in a Womb is a gentle but eerie opus that may be one of the better tracks the Faint has ever written. The Geeks Were Right, perhaps the album's most likely hit, is a tight throwback to their more dance-punk days. (...) Ultimately, Fasciination has enough passable triumphs mixed in with the misfires that the album is brought to a level of acceptable fluff."
-- Daniel Rivera, slantmagazine.com, 8/08
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