FACS have announced their sixth studio full-length. The Chicago trio will share Wish Defense — the final album engineered by the late Steve Albini — on February 7 via Trouble in Mind Records.
FACS recorded Wish Defense at Albini's Electrical Audio in Chicago, and as a recent studio profile for Inc. magazine reveals, the band had booked a week of studio time after cutting a pair of tracks with Albini for a Sub Pop Records 7-inch.
Vocalist-guitarist Brian Case that on the second-last day of recording, "We stopped around 7:30 at night and said, 'Let's meet up at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.' And at some point Tuesday night, [Albini] died."
Following Albini's untimely May 2024 passing at 61, friend and engineer Sanford Parker would complete the recording, while longtime collaborator John Congleton mixed the album at Electrical Audio using Albini's session notes.
Wish Defense also marks the return of original FACS member Jonathan Van Herik, who had left the group just before they made their debut with 2018's Negative Houses.
The album's title track lands alongside the announcement, complete with a music video directed by Joshua Ford.
Case shares in a release that the song's sentiment is "…don't let the bastards get you down, there's something beyond this moment, like hope — but not in the naive belief that ultimately people are good."
FACS will tour Europe to mark Wish Defense's release, with further details available via the band.
Wish Defense:
1. Talking Haunted
2. Ordinary Voices
3. Wish Defense
4. A Room
5. Desire Path
6. Sometimes Only
7. You Future