![]() ![]() However, in 2016, co-founder Nick McCarthy left the band to spend time with his family and pursue other interests, leaving Kapranos, bassist Bob Hardy and drummer Paul Thomson to decide on the future of Franz Ferdinand. Across their next four albums, they continued to dabble with the mainstream, while pushing their music to new levels, including an entire dub version of 2009’s Tonight titled Blood and a full-album collaboration with glam rock eccentrics Sparks under the guise of FFS. They sound like a band having a properly good time – and boy, is it fun to listen to.As a result of the adoration, they scooped up the Mercury Prize and a couple of BRIT Awards, but the Scots didn’t let success interfere with their art. ![]() Unburdened by the expectations of a genre, there’s a likeability about the way the band deftly weave their way through their disco-infused, punk-tinged rock. The reality has been quite the opposite if anything, they have thrived as musical oddities, returning to their chaotic best on this latest showing. There were fears among some that Franz Ferdinand would mellow after the decline of the British guitar music scene. ![]() Happily, there is space for reflection aboard the madcap joyride, and Kapranos’ voice retains a casual charm over the frenzied backing as he steers a rough course through themes of faith and self-destruction. “How can I tell you I was wrong, when I am the proudest man ever born?”, he reflects coolly on the wistful ‘Stand On the Horizon’, offering a momentary glimpse of vulnerability past the hip exterior his band wears so well. Behind the rhythmic brawn, this is Franz Ferdinand at their confident best, once again showing that few bands are as accomplished when it comes to suffusing the angsty with the debonair. Lyrically, Alex Kapranos has donned his wordsmith hat once again, with the result yielding a mixture between the cerebral and the bizarre as he sings “I’m the king of the animals” over a playful keyboard backing on ‘Treason! Animals’. ‘Fresh Strawberries’ sounds just as goofy to begin with, before it unveils a bittersweet crescendo of “wouldn’t it be easy with something to believe in.” The sideshow is tempered by an effortless unease, though, like a cool older brother attempting to shrug off suggestions of insecurity. ![]() There’s a raw weight to this sound that resonates in today’s setting a veritable sledgehammer next to the dentist’s drill of modern indie.įranz Ferdinand’s sound is a veritable sledgehammer next to the dentist’s drill of modern indie. Hot Chip’s production role can also take some credit here their own ‘Over and Over’ comes to mind as ‘Love Illumination’ siphons harmony and discomfort in equal measure from the depths of its droning vocal layers. If Franz Ferdinand have any qualms about their place in a shifting music industry, it certainly doesn’t show. Elsewhere, the strutting hooks of ‘Bullet’ and ‘Evil Eye’ add moments of throwback dance-floor cool to the mix, with any momentary sojourns into disorder marshalled superbly by the energetic but assured rhythm section. Album opener and lead single ‘Right Action’ drags us back into their heyday amongst a backdrop of clattering riffs and guttural yelps, tied together by the kind of mischievous melodies previously heard on ‘Do You Want To’ and ‘Ulysses’. The rejuvenated group’s fourth album was subject to a relatively quiet release this August, but the band best remembered for 2004’s ‘Take Me Out’ are anything but reticent on this latest demonstration of their unique talents.Ĭlocking in at a meagre 35 minutes, they don’t waste time in reminding us of their spiky rock credentials. The Glaswegian rockers have crashed along with their jarring style long after those bands faded from our airwaves, and the title seems less expedient than ever upon the release of Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action. Hindsight paints a different picture, however. There was a time in the last decade when Franz Ferdinand were proclaimed would-be champions of the British guitar music scene that saw the likes of The Libertines and Razorlight rise to prominence. ![]()
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