I am literally so excited about their latest album it's literally making me want to use the word "literally" incorrectly... No seriously, I'm so excited about it I felt like telling everyone. I'm not a sophisticated music-reviewer so this is just my personal ramblings : )
Firstly, I know it's not even "new" - it came out in January, but hey, I've been busy, I can't help being a bit behind the times. The fact is, I was at Glastonbury when I suddenly realised that Franz Ferdinand were not simply one of those 2004 bands to be forgotten about. I loved them when I was 14, but for the last couple of years I'd accindentally thrown them in the boring, generic indie-pop bin to compost beside the Kaiser Chiefs. It was definitely accidental. They were awesome then and they are awesomer now.
At Glastonbury when I noticed their new progressive style, not to mention fantastic playing, and a set which included a lengthy drum/percussion instrumental involving the whole band, it clicked that my 14-year-old music taste couldn't have been that misguided after all. I acquired the album as soon as I got back from the muddy festival and I've finally given it a good listen - and what I hear stuns me more than their live performance did.
They're still Franz Ferdinand: same intelligent lyrics, and Kapranos' cheeky-yet-sexy vocals remain, together with the 60s guitar sounds. The injection of electro into their music is brilliant and fitting, and I am close to ecstatic that they discovered the power of synthesisers. Yet the electro aspect does not suprise me so much as this album's sudden inclusion of trance, psychadelia and dub! Admittedly I have the two-disc "special edition" of the album which includes extra, even crazier tracks, but across the entire album the bass is ramped up, and the synthesisers are making you jig around with glee. For a concept album, it's pretty erratic, they've crammed many genres into it, but you can still tell it's Franz Ferdinand, and somehow they've made the techno and dub sounds fit perfectly. It makes a truckload of sense that their new producer previously worked with Hot Chip.
Anyways, Please listen to it. There is a lot of variety squeezed into one album - if you're looking for chart hits, listen to No You Girls or Ulysses. If you're after old-style Franz Ferdinand with a classic rock sound, listen to Bite Hard. But if you're looking for a taste of their new sounds, particularly recommend Lucid Dreams, which explodes into electro half-way through, Die on the Floor which progresses into four-to-the-floor trance (infectious bassline included), or Katherine Hit Me, which is pretty much exclusively dub.
Oh yeah, did I mention Alex Kapranos is the best-dressed man in the entertainment industry? No? Well that too. They just don't stop being awesome. I am so glad I rediscovered this band.
