FACS 'Wish Defense'

A reckoning of identity and distortion, 'Wish Defense' finds FACS stepping deeper into their shadow. Their sixth studio album—and the final work recorded by Steve Albini—is a stark, serrated reflection of self and sound. With the return of original member Jonathan Van Herik on bass, the Chicago trio reconfigures its dynamic with renewed intensity. The result is their most angular, atmospheric work in years—songs that strike sideways, unraveling themes of duality, doppelgängers, and fractured identity.

The band’s core—Brian Case, Noah Leger, and Van Herik—delivers tightly wound compositions charged with menace and restraint. Albini’s raw production gives space to every jarring groove and haunted lyric, later completed with care by Sanford Parker and mixed by longtime collaborator John Congleton. 'Wish Defense' doesn’t offer easy answers; instead, it stares into the mirror, asking whether the self we perform is ever the self we are. Taut, unnerving, and emotionally exposed, this is FACS confronting the void with a pulse and a presence that refuses to fade. A fitting epitaph to Albini’s legacy, and another crucial entry in the band’s ongoing excavation of post-everything rock.