It's my first album recomendation of the year so i'll start with an obvious one - Franz Ferdinand's third offering. Cue high expectations, especially considering they'd previously stated they'd be using a lot more synthesizers on this one. Just listening to the first single 'Ulysses' (the first track on the album) sets the scene, soft, off-kilter percussion and a driving bassline with Alex Kopranos' hushed vocals leading to a mighty synth warble and an explosion of that inimitable brand of indie that Franz excel at. The next three songs remind the listener exactly why they loved FF in the first place marrying their trademark energetic, stabbing guitar riffs and strange yet familiar lyrics with a new found pulsing rhythm and dance sensibility. The next few tracks take the album in a new direction with the band introducing some fresh ideas, the influences of pyschedelic rock and disco become apparent and the synths that they promised in their early interviews subtly appear, thankfully never so much that they dominate but enough to give the new songs an interesting variation from the guitar/bass/drums combination and make them stand out against their previous two albums worth.
I particularly like this album because it makes me want to dance to these new songs on a slightly more refined dancefloor with a reasonable grade vodka and coke in hand whilst reminding me of 2004 when i used to throw myself around on scummy, sweaty, sticky indie floorboards spilling large amounts of Snakebite and Black over anybody and everybody nearby. Their debut perfectly embodied the youthful energy and frustration i felt at the time and this new one seems to have progressed in exactly the same way as i have, the frustration is still there but it's subtler, (slightly) more sophisticated and cleverer than it was five years ago. Thank you Franz Ferdinand for a great album, for reminding me how it feels to be 18 and for making me realise that i'm glad that i've grown up a bit.
Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
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