Back in 2006, eagle-eyed viewers for an episode of Doctor Who set at the 2012 Olympics could spot a cheeky "Franz Ferdinand Greatest Hits" flyer as the TARDIS landed.
At the time it seemed a sure thing - FF were becoming a big band, graduating to headline Reading Festival alongside Muse and Pearl Jam, and sitting high in the pantheon of bands.
Things haven't quite materialised that way - an elongated creative process for Tonight:Franz Ferdinand, the admission they had to change things they didn't like to make a new album and a fits-and-starts recording process means no best of album came out around the Olympics.
But at least unlike Shayne Ward - the other flier stuck down - they're still around. They have a new album introduced by two very fresh pop-rockers that sound like a big upgrade on the signature sound. Some four and a half years after Tonight:Franz Ferdinand came out, the Glasgow dance-rockers are back with an album touted as a return to the soundscapes and punching choruses of their 2004 debut album.
So what have they presented?
1. Right Action
Franz have opened two of their albums with songs starting subtle and building up into mass hysteria (Jacqueline, Ulysses). Here, it feels like we're mid-song barely seconds in, with a powerful chorus atop a bold rhythm powering past with 23 seconds on the clock. It sounds brilliant on repeat listening where everything comes together and seeps together quickly.
2. Evil Eye
The album's 3rd single starts with a cheery squawk of "What's the colour of the next car? It's red ya bastard!" backtracked by a very funky riff that sounds almost like Chic and at times recalls Take Me Out. Its got to it a very funky strut, topped off with a number of police siren noises and the unnerving feeling of being pursued. It all pulls together, with a great bouncy groove to it.
3. Love Illumination
While there is some online notoriety for its conspiracy theorist-baiting video, this song is particularly pleasant. It's a huge song built on huge choruses and dirty riffs, and it has an almost instant-spark. The random oboe, saxophone and keyboard solos also give it the good experimental touches to build on the straight-up sleazy rocker its based upon.
4. Stand on the Horizon
After 3 pummelling pop-rockers, this song starts more laid back and wistfully. This song changes character throughout, quickly dispensing with its quieter intro for 80s disco-rock before moving into a more electronic style, and then ending with forlorn cries of "the North Sea sings won't you come to me?". It's certainly an impressive melding of styles and scopes.
5. Fresh Strawberries
"A fresh burst of red strawberries, ripe, turning riper in the bowl, we will soon be rotten, we will all be forgotten" is the pleasingly optimistic intro to this one. This coda leads into a pleasantly spright pop tune that recalls the Beatles, built atop a spindly riff and a dark lyrical heart wondering "wouldn't it be easier to believe?". This is a nice song.
6. Bullet
This song begins with a the breakneck-speed indie reminiscent of first FF single Darts of Pleasure, before it moves into a storming marcher. Its another unsettling but forthright chorus - "I'll never get your bullet of my head now, baby" - but it lurches along nicely before reaching an end inside 2:45. It feels a bit eager to reach its destination though.
7. Treason! Animals.
If the last song was lyrically unsettling, this is almost one stop beyond. Led by burbling synths and bass, the paranoia is big early on with cries of "Something has really gone wrong here". Before long there's another fine chorus but its after the second chorus where things get interesting, as synths blossom and Kaparnos' paranoid prose moves into overdrive before the song closes up. Its a delightful highlight.
8. The Universe Expanded
This one's an interesting one, starting up with sci-fi synths and an unsettling guitar riff. Its an intriguing concept both musically and lyrically, where the author seems occupied with wanting to reverse time to escape the pain of an ending romance - "unbake a cake", "tears roll back" - before having a spikey chorus buried in the middle about how "when the universe has expanded, time will contract, you'll come back". Its a pleasant listen with the only complaint being it ends a wee bit abruptly.
9. Brief Encounters
This song is probably the nearest to Tonight on the album, both musically and lyrically. Its pillow talk of being "on the edge of Ambrosia", then being "rigid in the matrimonial superking bed" following sleazy affairs, all backed by creeping synths and random spurts of aggressive guitar. Its decent but there's better here.
10. Goodbye Lovers and Friends
Kapranos cheerily talked on BBC that this song is "imagining giving my own nostalgia-free eulogy". Its a sweet musical bed of tribal percussion and bubbly 80s-keys backing bitter lines like "don't fake your memories" and "don't give me virtues I never had". The song's cheekiest line "Don't play pop music - you know I hate pop music" starts the tune and also appears near the end, followed up by a resigned cry of "this is the end", bringing the album and a very satisfying tune to the end.
Its clear that Franz's return has seen them come back with some of their usual tricks. Jagged-edge riffs, bouncing rhythms and intelligently crafted choruses are the range here, and all are fuelled by a darker heart than the band's previous records - perhaps borne of the troubles in the band post-Tonight.
Certainly its a return to form and a delightful album at that.
4/5
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