Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand Review

Franz Ferdinand Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

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Tracklist:
1. Ulysses
2. Turn It On
3. No You Girls Never Know
4. Send Him Away
5. Twilight Omens
6. Bite Hard
7. What She Came For
8. Live Alone
9. Can't Stop Feeling
10. Lucid Dreams
11. Dream Again
12. Katherine Kiss Me

Ranking: #34 for 2009

user rating

3.4
great

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On 14 Lists

4.0
excellent

Nick Butler STAFF (158 Reviews)

2009-01-26 | 56 comments | 4,506 views

Summary: Franz go electro, embrace their true nature, and make their best album yet.

If there's one indie who don't need telling that they should just concentrate on being a great pop band, it's Franz Ferdinand; and yet, that's exactly how much of the popular media will probably respond to this, the band's third full-length. Eschewing the darker, more psychedelic edges of You Could Have It So Much Better and replacing the diversity they provided with a renewed focus on synthesizers and electronic textures, it's probably exactly how the writers of sub-tabloid gossip magazines like Heat, Bliss, and New Musical Express imagined how things would turn out when the news was leaked that Franz were working with Xenomania. Certainly a lot of the latter's trademarks permeate the album, most tellingly their glossy and vocal-centric production.

It should, in theory, make for a very average album. You Could Have It So Much Better was a bold step forward from their debut, a movement into areas darker and more mature than their 'music for girls to dance to' schtick would have you believe. On the surface, at least, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand largely suspends that, failing to capitalize on the success of tracks like "Eleanor, Put Your Boots On". And this is before we consider that. in adopting synthesizers, Franz are bowing to current trends, nodding in the direction of nu-rave and the ever-growing influence of acts like The Klaxons. And yet somehow, despite all that, it's another improvement - not necessarily a step forward in their sound as such, but certainly a refinement of the debut that eliminates the filler and updates the sound without sounding like an attempt to pander to the Mighty Boosh-worshipping university students of the latter half of the decade.

The reason for this album's success on the latter front - and indeed, the reason it's their best album yet - boils down to the fact that Franz are one of the few British indie bands who sound natural when absorbing computers into their songs. Kapranos was never the most emotional singer in the world, favouring instead the stance of standing back and observing the action passively, with wit and charm but never passion; rather than questioning the actions of the little boy in "The Fallen", he instead asks 'what's wrong with a little destruction?'. The same is true of the guitar parts of Nick McCarthy, which have been catchy, funky, and crisp without ever being in any way pretty or emotional (even "Eleanor", when faced with prettiness, opted instead for piano when guitars would have done just fine on their own). Really, they always had more in common with Kraftwerk than their more oft-quoted influence, Orange Juice, and it shows.

But the hooks! You can conceptualize their new sound all you like, but what really counts is that "Ulysses" and "No You Girls Never Know", among others, are the kind of song that can get stuck in your head after one half-attentive listen. Tying witty lyrics to muscular melodies has always been their obvious strength, right from the heady days of the "Darts of Pleasure" single, and it's in abundance here once again. Franz have always been smart enough to know that their strength lies here and that nothing should get in the way of it, which is why an awesome/terrible lyric like "Twilight Omen"'s deliriously stupid/clever 'I typed your name into a calculator/And it spelled a dirty word/When you turn it upside down' sounds so natural in their hands when so many other bands would just sound terrible doing the same thing. It's what they do; the synths are just an entertaining sub-plot to their most consistent set of songs yet.

Tonight: Franz Ferdinand will undoubtedly lose out in the end of year polls to Dutch post-rock, average death metal, twee indie-pop with way too many instruments, a Leonard Cohen live album, and at least one album that's an hour too long, yet for this listener, the band have set down an early benchmark for the year. It will be bettered, as surely as night follows day, but there might not be another album released in the next 12 months that offers the same delirious, sugar-coated enjoyment, let alone one that matches it with Kapranos' casually whip-smart lyrics. And you think Fennesz is intelligent dance music?

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