To me, the best music always reflects personal real life experiences and/or acute observation of the world/community we inhabit. Performed by leading edge performers with a distinctive style/sound, and who often ignore the big buck marketplace, this type of music seems to adhere to me like the most ferocious quick-drying glue. 2004 has been a good year for my kind of music, in fact one of the best I can remember. Records from PJ Harvey, the Frames, Gretchen Peters, Ataxia (John Frusciante), Paddy Casey, Damien Dempsey, Carina Round, Ella Guru, The National, Lori McKenna, Tom Baxter, Green Day and a few others are supremely communicative. Above all they involve the listener; they raise painful and joyful memories; they raise awareness of important personal and national/international issues. They tell the truth. The Faint is part of this meaningful scene and WET FROM BIRTH is a powerful exploration of emotions and experiences that we can all relate to.

Opening track Desperate Guys is a prime example of all the above. It describes those feelings when one spots somebody we’re very attracted to, and the imagination starts to flow. With flashing slivers of strings, rampant synth, deathly drum beats and a distant vocal, the message is made all the more intense. It’s at this point that I started to read the song lyrics and found, “Was it more than attraction and a physical lust? Her loins – my imagination – that first inconceivable touch that I was planning – I mean wishing, how embarrassed I’d been if you knew what I was thinking…” Haven’t we all been there? From the hyper-personal Erection (“It’s the scene from a movie, it’s an isle in a store, orchard of peaches, the sound of a sword, your wife in the shower… oh uh oh erection…”) to the innate fear expressed in Paranoiattack (“The news has got me paranoid, papers and all the news reports casualties of every war, the anchor people keeping score, the weapons now are chemical, in water and in the air above, in circulating envelopes, in powder through the postal routes…”), The Faint manage to expose against a background of dark, industrial sounds. It’s all pretty dramatic and bloody close to home.

The Faint sound like a beefed-up and more adventurous version of New Order. At times the music is brutal with melody almost as subtle as a hallucinatory oasis, but it is fresh and vibrant too, and perhaps not as doom-laden as at first appears. I understand that back in its homeland USA, the band has built up a substantial following through its heavy touring schedule and great live performance quality. With one successful album already under its belt, The Faint is about to set the sparks flying again with this new one. You won’t hear it on UK radio, and you’re unlikely to see it performed on TV, but that shouldn’t stop you chasing this album up and acquiring it – preferably sooner than later.

4.5/5