Wet from Birth by The Faint

The pale young men from Omaha, Nebraska known as the Faint have always been more than happy to revive the 1980s, an era when MTV showed actual music videos, for songs full of synthesizer dance beats. WET FROM BIRTH brings in heavier-than-usual punk/goth vibrations, as if Trent Reznor suddenly started playing keys for Depeche Mode. The lyrics have also evolved from previous sex-obsessed notions to deep, disturbing ruminations, made all the odder by their dance-floor-ready frameworks. The rude-boy-style jump-up "I Disappear" opens with Joel Petersen's bass line sounding so wonderfully distorted you worry his amp won't make it halfway through the first chorus, as vocalist Todd Baechle laments about the crippling nature of self-consciousness. "Dropkick the Pinks" takes a dive into the basement for '80s punk, with little sister's Duran Duran album still audible from upstairs. Deliciously dated anthemic guitar riffs enliven "Birth," wherein Todd sings his sticky, pain-wracked remembrances of exiting the womb, ...