2022 marked the first year since their debut in 2018 that Chicago experimental post-punk ensemble FACS didn’t release an LP (unless you count their live recording of the previous year’s Present Tense), a fact they’re already remedying this early in 2023 with the announcement that their fifth record will arrive on April 7. Still Life in Decay takes the trio’s brooding noise to new levels, with lead single “When You Say” exhibiting their propulsive bass-and-percussion-heavy formula at its most unnerving. Fitting for an album that sees bassist Alianna Kalaba putting in her final work with the group before her amicable departure, the single—and album more broadly—examines the lifecycle of human relationships and how they ebb and flow over time.
“Still Life in Decay is about that kind of change, realizing that relationships exist in different ways for individuals in shared situations, and how you navigate that as a unit,” vocalist Brian Case explains. “We knew when we were making this record that Alianna was going to be stepping away from the band, which of course heavily informed the sessions. Filled with deep understanding and love, but still those insecurities and feelings of loss, or an end of something. Despite that, Still Life in Decay feels more like a beginning, it’s tense and vulnerable in a way we haven’t presented ourselves before. I’m so proud of what the three of us did with this album.”
Check out the single below, which arrives with a moodily lit music video of the band’s silhouettes performing the track in front of a bright red illuminated backdrop. You can pre-order the record before it arrives via Trouble in Mind here.
