Elly Roberts reviews
Franz Ferdinand: Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Distributed by
Domino Records
CD: 
Special Edition:
- Released: January 2009
- Rating: 10/10
- Vote and comment on this album:
View Comments
Franz ‘go disco’. Sweaty stuff.
“Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is music of the night: to fling yourself around your room to as you psyche yourself for a night of hedonism, for the dance floor, flirtation, for your desolate heart-stop, for losing it and loving losing it , for the chemical surge in your bloodstream. It’s for that lonely hour gently rocking yourself waiting for dawn and it all to be even again” – Alex Kapranos.
Yeah right… I get the picture. To you and me, he means a cracking night out, getting sweaty (?), and recovering from a hangover, or whatever.
Sounds like the good old days of 1978 Saturday Night Fever – been there, done that, and great it was too, thank you.
So, all the couched clap-trap is about a ‘disco album’, basically.
To me that means ‘PARTY-TIME’, so we can’t take this album too serious. Whopping new single Ulysses is a statement of intent as Kapranos snarls, “…I’m bored, I’m bored, come on let’s get high,” and they’re off on their hedonistic night.
To their credit, this is a much better ‘album’ than the two previous ones – too many filler tracks.
Franz are all about thumping anthemic pop songs, which they’ve done all over again, only better, over the entire album.
They’ve also experimented with different sounds like synthesisers, a minor progression admittedly.
Recorded in an unorthodox venue cum studio, a cavernous locating in Glasgow, and messing with swinging mics suspended from the high ceiling, it doesn’t reveal anything significantly new about them.
Nevertheless, Tonight : Franz Ferdinand is like a bill-board announcement …they’re on here tonight, so look out.
They’ve recently played a gig to a dance audience, and went down a storm – aim achieved. At the heart of their music are whopping riffs, which few bands can match, except maybe Bodyrockers, who’ve cracked the cracked pop-rock-disco format brilliantly. So have they sold their soul ? No. It’s not real progression per say, a sideways move.
Thus, Franz are hot on their heels with Turn It On, No You Girls, and well, most of the collection, except the ‘down-time’ (dawn maybe?) Dream Again’ (dawn maybe?) and gorgeous acoustic Katherine Kiss Me, which is pretty cool, and sweet.
The verdict – Do I like it? Yes ..a lot actually.
Radio: Hear tracks soon on
wrexhamfm.com
The full list of tracks included are :
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
