Their debut was an instant hit, the follow-up a disappointment. Third time round, Franz Ferdinand have put the glitterball back into the guitar stomp with their new album Tonight, reveals Aidan Smith.
ULYSSESFirst track, first single, and Alex Kapranos hisses: "C'mon let's get high!" But it's no longer that simple, laddie. The pop world has changed since you shook a skinny leg to declare the nightclub known as Franz Ferdinand'
s – agitated guitars on one side of the hall, disco drums on the other – open for business. "I'm bored, I'm bored," he continues, and so are we because your sound has become much-imitated. But Kapranos is on a night out and he's insistent: "I've found a new way." And he has...
TURN IT ON"It ain't easy being this kind of lover… I'm dedicated… you don't want to know how I manage it, though – you don't want to know what goes on when you moan." At least I think that's what he's saying; Franz Ferdinand's is hotting up. This album was going to be African-influenced. No, it was going to be solid gold easy action pop, courtesy of Xenomania, studio Svengalis of Girls Aloud. No, no, it was going to be dirty. Already it's that.
NO YOU GIRLS"Lick your cigarette then kiss me!" Another classic FF marching song, with a chorus which slinkily shifts from "You girls never know how you make a boy feel" to "You boys never care how the girl feels". In sweaty corners of this record, strange new sounds lurk.
SEND HIM AWAYA change in tempo, a skipping soft-rock rhythm (Kapranos, sounding very Bryan Ferry: "I don't care whose breath is in your hair") – and, yes, there's been a definite change to the door policy at Franz Ferdinand's: The "no jeans, no trainers, no synthesisers" rule has been relaxed to permit the latter. The ending sounds like one of Brian Eno's freak-outs for vintage Roxy Music.
TWILIGHT OMENSBack to the marching beat we know and love. It's so cocky and uncompromising that you wonder how it took FF so long to get this album out. Obviously when I make these military allusions I mean quite camp marching; it would be no good in a war. (Sample lyric: "You can turn my dirty world the right way round.")
BITE HARDMore Ferry crooning from Kapranos and a big, dumb, squelchy synth break from Nick McCarthy. In 2005, interviewing Eno for this paper, the sonic wizard drew me a diagram (I still have it) indicating how FF could become more electronica-oriented. They didn't follow his advice for the second album but they have now.
WHAT SHE CAME FOR Franz Ferdinand's is justly famous for its "Back to the 70s" interludes and here's another. Over a Chic-style bump'n'grind courtesy of John Thomson and Bob Hardy, Kapranos delivers his best, slashed-shirt chat-up line yet: "Where do you see yourself in five minutes' time?"
LIVE ALONEThe glitterball is really spinning now, and the floor's uplighters are flashing brightly coloured squares. "I wanna live alone," wails Kapranos, "because the greatest love is always ruined by the bickering." Something tells me the man's available tonight.
CAN'T STOP FEELINGThe African track, with a throbbing, snaky beat: "You leave me dancing alone/you leave me to die on the floor." (If you like concept albums about clubbing, also check out Metronomy's Nights Out, a cult hit of last year).
LUCID DREAMSWith Kapranos still theorising about "aimless love", there are echoes of 'Michael', just as 'Ulysses' vaguely resembles 'Take Me Out' (possibly as a result of a cloakroom mix-up at Franz Ferdinand's). But then FF take us to a place we've never been before: a weird, dark, roped-off, members-only section of the club. No one is singing, the beat is Krautrock motorik, and it's still going almost eight minutes later.
DREAM AGAINFF do Pink Floyd. Recording the previous album, they surprised themselves by assimilating the influence, having previously viewed the Floyd as "the enemy", the Dark Side. But don't panic: this is Syd Barrett-era Floyd, the best kind. A slow and woozy track: it's comedown time.
KATHERINE KISS ME"Katherine kiss me, in the alley-way by jakeys." Franz Ferdinand's is closing and this sweet ballad sees us home. "Your leather jacket lies in sticky pools of cider blackberry," adds our emotional hero. Who's Katherine? Don't know, but what a great night!
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (Domino) is released on January 26
