Photo by: Evan Jenkins
On their sixth studio album Wish Defense (incoming Feburary 7, 2025 on Trouble In Mind Records), Chicago trio FACS take a good, long look in the mirror to face themselves. The group’s guitarist/vocalist Brian Case notes that the album’s lyrics evolve around doppelgängers or “doubles,” tackling the idea of facing yourself and observing your ideas and motivations.
FACS have revealed the album’s second single, “Desire Path” alongside a striking black and white visualizer. Echoing the album’s cover art, checkerboards everywhere are offset reflections of themselves.
On Wish Defense, the return of FACS original member Jonathan Van Herik— who stepped away from the group just before their debut album Negative Houses was released, and replacing longtime bassist Alianna Kalaba— brings renewed vigor and a marked angularity from the band’s more recent output. The songs still hit hard, but the approach is sideways; the roles have changed since Van Herik’s original tenure and his previous time with Case and powerhouse drummer Noah Leger in Disappears; now on bass, Van Herik was originally the group’s guitar player and features on the debut, while current guitarist Brian Case played bass. This role reversal has helped the band’s dynamic, offering up a different musical perspective than before, now revisiting the trio’s long-going collaboration with some distance and time.
A final note: Wish Defense is the last album engineered by Steve Albini. Two days were recorded at Electrical Audio in early May of 2024 before Steve’s untimely passing, with renowned engineer and friend Sanford Parker stepping in to finish the session 24 hours later, tracking the last bits of vocals and overdubs. Longtime collaborator John Congleton mixed the album as Albini would have, in Electrical Audio’s A room, off the tape, using Albini’s notes about the session.
Wish Defense, track list:
Talking Haunted
Ordinary Voices
Wish Defense
A Room
Desire Path
Sometimes Only
You Future
