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*** The Faint

DANSE MACABRE

(Saddle Creek)

Omaha’s the Faint were a lo-fi indie-rock band who morphed into a synthesizer-driven no-wave project on 1999’s Blank-Wave Arcade. Their melancholy but alluring third album is the sound of a band becoming comfortable in their new computerized skin. On Blank-Wave Arcade, dark lyrics were often hidden by bright, melodic keyboards. Here those same keyboards have taken an unsettling turn toward minor keys and moodiness. The addition of haunting cello only adds to the growing sense of paranoia and the creeping feelings of hopelessness that are reflected in the lyrics; strangulation (“Posed to Death”), the needless paralysis a lifeguard suffers when a swimmer fakes drowning (“Ballad of a Paralysed Citizen”), and career anxiety (“Agenda Suicide”) are among the topics that turn up. No question that the mix of loose dance beats and synth-based retro nods to the music of the ’80s — “Your Retro Career Melted” is oddly reminiscent of Styx’s “Mr. Roboto,” and shades of Devo, the Cure, and even the guitar-centered Smiths pop up elsewhere. But the sobering lyrics are proof that for the Faint, new wave is more than just a nostalgic goof.

— Annie Zaleski