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Review: Franz Ferdinand-Tonight

by Rudy Klapper 29 January 2009 2,463 views One Comment E-mail Rudy Klapper

Franz Ferdinand's "Tonight" is a step in a different direction.

Scottish foursome Franz Ferdinand always towered above many of their peers with their concise blasts of tuneful guitar hooks, dance rhythms, and singer Alex Kapranos’ wry, irrepressibly clever lyrics. Franz Ferdinand’s third album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, has been three years in the making, and longtime fans expecting a return to the angular post-punk guitar ricochets of You Could Have It So Much Better and their self-titled debut will be more than a little disappointed with this latest outing.’

Kapranos himself has stated that Tonight was to be “quite new . . . quite different sounding from everything we’ve ever done before.” This is undoubtedly true, but for all the benefits of evolving, not everything on Tonight is up to the standard of the band’s seminal earlier work. Still there but far less important in the mix is Nick McCarthy’s guitar, replaced by bombastic ‘80s keyboards and slinky bass lines. First single “Ulysses” is the perfect example of Franz’s new direction, a love-it-or-hate-it opener that starts off with a simple beat and Kapranos’ whisper of a voice before expanding with a twirling synth and distorted guitar as he belts out “I’ve found a new way.” Indeed, this is a new Franz, but the song’s lackluster bridge and fairly standard chorus cause “Ulysses” to pale in comparison with previous Franz singles.

Everything is forgiven, however, with the excellent one-two punch of the following “Turn It On” and “No You Girls,” songs that recall the dance-punk of their debut but with a noticeably funkier sound. “No You Girls,” in particular, jives along a twisted guitar riff and Kapranos’ deliciously naughty lyrics (“kiss me where your eye won’t meet me” goes an early verse) before exploding into one of the best choruses on the record. Throughout, Franz does a fair job of switching between the familiar guitar-based rock of their earlier work, such as the thumping, unrelenting rhythm of “Bite Hard,” and their newfound fascination with synthtastic, Hot Fuss-era Killers new-wave punk, like the keyboard-heavy “Live Alone.”

Source: missingtoof

On some songs it sounds forced and over the top, as on the aforementioned “Live Alone,” but tunes like the dub-influenced “Send Him Away” and the buzzing techno and impressive bass playing on “Can’t Stop Feeling” show some serious promise for Franz’s future if they continue in this direction. There’s one thing, however, that will definitely need some work on future records: Kapranos’ often-unforgivable lyrics. The album follows a loose theme of a night out on the town, so maybe lines like “I typed your number into my calculator / where it spelled a dirty word when I turned it upside down” can be attributed to one too many pints at the bar. Too many times, however, does Kapranos resort to bad puns or nonsensical rhymes to get through a song. Luckily, his distinctive pipes are so pleasant to listen to it’s easy to overlook many of his verbal gaffes. Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is easily a step down from their debut and the oft-underrated You Could Have It So Much Better, but, at its best, the band’s merging of electronica and ‘80s synth rock with their own inimitable post-punk guitar tricks show that Franz are not content to re-make their debut over and over again. Sure, I never thought I’d hear Kapranos and co. bloat a song like the otherwise enjoyable “Lucid Dreams” out to nearly eight minutes with pointless electronica wankery, but, hey, musicians sometimes have weird desires. Tonight is a grower, and for a band branching out of their comfort zone, it’s an uneven, entertaining experiment. Domino 2008 Rating: 7/10