Franz Ferdinand: Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
[Domino Records (Epic)]
[xrr rating=3.9/5]
Reviewed by: Christian Hagen
Franz Ferdinand is a fascinating collective animal. The mainstream consciousness seems to act as if they only released one album in their career, a rollicking disco-rock splash, a flash-in-the-pan blend of sexual promiscuity, lyrical nonsense, and tight hi-hat backbeats. They were fun to dance to, occasionally brilliant, but mostly forgettable for the general public. But for me, Franz Ferdinand continues to be defined more by their second album, the more-than-promising You Could Have It So Much Better, in which the band seemed to grow out of themselves. It outfoxed the so-called “sophomore slump” (blech to that term) by switching gears to rock jams, occasionally getting downright quiet for some old school psychedelia. It was a step in a direction that few other dance-rock bands like to go (I’m looking straight at you, The Bravery!), but they took it without sounding pretentious or blatantly ripping off other people’s work (now I’m looking at you, The Killers!).
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, the band’s hotly anticipated third release, was supposed to come out last Spring, and was billed as Franz Ferdinand’s return to the “dance record.” Personal feelings aside, I waited anxiously to hear what the band had been doing in their nearly four year absence. Then, the band released an early version of a song called “Lucid Dreams” on their website, and, frankly, it fell totally flat. Critics and fans alike bemoaned the same-old, same-old feel of the song, the chorus that didn’t seem to make any sense at all (“There is no nation of you/There is no nation of me”…wtf?). People braced for disappointment. The release day came…and went, without fanfare and, more importantly, an album from Franz Ferdinand. Word got out that the band wasn’t happy with their product, and wanted to completely retool their sound.
As the new year prepared to dawn, a surprise leaked out: A new version of “Lucid Dreams”, now topping 8 minutes, which blew people away. Excitement and chatter began to build all over again. Would this newly redone record sound like their debut, or their sadly ignored follow-up? Essentially, are they disco or rock?
At the album’s best, the answer is neither here nor there. “Twilight Omens” features a keyboard-heavy loop straight out of the 80s, but the thick guitars keep it grounded and fairly rocking. Meanwhile, “What She Came For” begins as pure disco, synthesizers on full blast, but amidst it all, singer Alex Kapranos practically growls the lyrics like a grungy sex-god, building the song to a rock bombast at the end. You see where this is going? The point is: Some of the songs on this album see Franz at their best, finally synergizing the two genres they’ve been struggling against their whole careers. The absolute epitome of this blend is the aforementioned “Lucid Dreams”, an ever-changing soundscape that rushes from tenderness into fire and back, transforming a once bland disappointment into an opus, a career-spanning track of epic proportions.
Unfortunately, not every song fares so well. Franz Ferdinand continues to be hung up on the party scene, a romanticized world of promiscuity and illegality in which people lose their creativity as they lose their minds. “Ulysses”, the album’s opener, is Franz 101, “Take Me Out” only with more un-clever drug references. It seems to be a satire of some sort, but any meaning is lost in a catchy chorus and a danceable beat. Songs like “Turn It On”, “No You Girls”, and “Bite Hard” just continue a needless trend of banality. They squander disc space on songs that should have been relegated to a b-sides collection.
The album ends with the soft and slightly thought-provoking solo acoustic “Katherine Kiss Me”, and it’s a striking contrast with any other song in their body of work. If only the whole of the album could outmatch the sum of its parts, moments of excitement and brilliance tempered with too many reminders that we’re listening to the same band that broke big and made it to Guitar Hero, and then was all but forgotten. Hopefully next time, Franz Ferdinand will leave the sex and drugs at the door, but keep the rock and roll thriving.
