Spend “Tonight” with Franz Ferdinand
Franz looks to get their fans dancing, and spastically succeeds with catchy tracks
Franz Ferdinand
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Released on Jan 27, 2009
It’s difficult to not make a crack about how Franz Ferdinand was all about being "taken out" on their first album, because with Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, these boys are making some music that you might hear while you’re taking them out. While they sounded great as a pop-rock band, it seems like FF has hit their stride with club-friendly rhythms and choruses.
Perhaps I shouldn’t say club-friendly — these aren’t obnoxious trance tracks. The opening track, “Ulysses,” might implore its listeners with the repeated plea of “let’s get high,” but this is well-done electro-pop, not thumping, thrown-together bass beats with a side of roofies. Nearly every track has the potential to be the big single off of the album, which makes for an entertaining, though slightly jarring listening experience.
When push comes to shove, though, I’m going to call the two big singles right now. Obviously, “No You Girls,” which I’m fairly sure has already made the rounds on shows like Gossip Girl, is going to be stuck in many heads for months to come. I blame the chorus — it is the definition of catchy. I caught myself humming it at least seven times today, and I’ve only listened to the album a couple of times. However, “Turn It On” might put up a fight. It’s short and sweet at just over two minutes, and while this track may not offer the most sophisticated lyrics (“I’ll never be alone yeah, you know I’d follow you to Rome yeah”), you’ll be chiming in with the “turn it on” refrain every couple of seconds.
While this track’s length takes it out of the running for a single, “Lucid Dreams” lives up to its name. Between the synthesizers, drum machines, and lyrics, the nearly eight-minute song becomes quite the acid trip. It’s arguably the most creative and daring track on the album, because it sounds like they decided to include every possible audio effect, and write some lyrics to accompany the cacophony. In theory, it should be a train wreck, but in actuality, it sounds pretty fantastic.
Here’s the only problem with an album full of catchy dance tracks though—they’re all competing for your attention, and you might be a little exhausted by the end of Tonight. In a smart move, the last two tracks definitely serve as the “coming down” songs, as if they realized their fans might want a break. Excluding the final two songs, this is the album that you’ll want to listen to before you’re about to stay out all night, or need to get your ass out of bed the morning after. While the album ends up sounding a little chaotic at times, FF deserve tons of credit for taking the plunge into electro-pop and coming out relatively unscathed. In fact, when given a little time to polish their new sound, they might just want to stick to this end of the musical spectrum.
High Point
Even though they’re still growing into it, I’m really liking Franz Ferdinand, electro-pop act.
Low Point
They’ve got some work to do on the last track, Katherine Kiss Me. Honestly, it sounds like a terrible cover of a Velvet Underground song that never made it onto any albums—for good reason.
Posted by Alyssa Vincent on Feb 19, 2009 @ 6:00 am