Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Mon 9th Feb, 2009 in Music Reviews

When Franz Ferdinand burst onto the scene in 2004 with their dynamic, catchy-as-hell single Take Me Out and their similarly infectious debut album, they earned themselves an instant legion of fans who warmed to their infectious dance-rock sound. Their magnetic second record, You Could Have It So Much Better , was a further testament to the group’s sound and their talent for writing a great indie dancefloor anthem.

The Glaswegian lads made fans wait an agonising four years for their third record, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, but now that the wait is over – how does it match up? Opening track and leading single Ulysses certainly ticks all the boxes, with its catchy guitar hooks, passages you can punch your fists in the air to and sing along with (just try and stop yourself getting the chorus stuck in your head: “La, la la la la, Ulysses, I’ve found a new way”) and danceable beat. The band have always had a knack for picking their singles: the very funky and fun No You Girls is one of the best tracks on this record, while the other album highlight, the almost-eight-minute-long Lucid Dreams, is the album’s most striking song. Ambitiously, the song closes with a lengthy locked-in groove of shimmering melodies and grindy, electro-drenched basslines. This might very well hint to a new path Alex Kapranos and co are hoping to tread more in the future and indeed, much of the album is dominated by more disco-influenced sounds and synthesisers. Most notably, Live Alone with its galloping disco beat and pitchy synthesisers definitely leans towards a more electro-pop sound with Cut Copy-esque undertones at its edges.

Parts of Tonight are less memorable – tracks such as the funky Turn It On and the vibrant Bite Hard are punchy and fun but don’t diverge from the band’s tried and tested formula. An unlikely album highlight, the album’s curious closer is a stripped back, acoustic ballad – a style the band don’t often delve into but which they always gracefully pull off. Like Eleanor Get Your Boots On from their previous record, Katherline Kiss Me sits comfortably among the stompier album counterparts, a wonderfully lulling, if not oddly placed, finish to the record.

With its strong leading singles, Tonight is likely to maintain the band’s strong position on the radar for a while. Ultimately, the album probably won’t make as strong a mark as their stellar debut. But Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is still a solid album, and another great collection of songs from one of Scotland’s finest.