During my sophomore year of high school my mother packed my friends, my little sister and me into the back of a Suburban and braved 476 to 676 to Spring Garden for the first of what would come to be many mom-fueled excursions to the Electric Factory.
In the midst of a period where I was listening to singers that ranged from whiny acoustic acts to fringe hard-core bands, my mom was ecstatic when I finally brought home an album she didn’t hate. As this Scottish band sang out silly dance tracks about burning down cities and dancing with boys, I realized I had found a band that was infectious enough to get almost anyone who heard them to dance. And when you’re 16, finding other teenagers who want to dance is a quite a rare thing.
Only one band could have coerced my mom into taking that initial trek into the city, and it was Franz Ferdinand.
And though these Scots may have turned down the nonsense and turned up the dance beats, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand has all the markings of an album that will once again people of all ages and genre-loyalties flocking to the record shops.
Tonight takes this band’s maturity and sticks it in a blender with the youthful swagger of their first album. Though it still has some of the rock-induced flavors of You Could Have It So Much Better, this disc was through and through engineered for the dance floor.
Despite the similar themes of the first and third albums, it’s immediately obvious that Alex Kapranos has grown up. His sexy croon on opening track “Ulysses” is telltale of that. No longer is he singing pop numbers about looking for someone to “Take Me Out.” He wants someone to go home with when the night’s over.
The flirtatious attitude of this band has been magnified and chiseled into a perfect killing strike at any man or woman holding out against the attractions of dance music. Catchy guitar hooks have been replaced with bass and synth-driven riffs that cause involuntarily shoulder and hip swaying. Tracks like “Turn It On” and “Send Him Away” have got a darker attitude and rhythms conducive for movement. These boys are irresistible.
But their juvenile attitude is still present. Lyrics like “I typed your number into my calculator / Where it spelled a dirty word when you turned it upside-down” from “Twilight Omens” break from the club-hunting and take a listener back to middle school romance.
Their clap-along choruses (see “No You Girls”) and the overall simplicity of their lyrics and song structure keep any jaded elements this album could have at bay. This album won’t stimulate you intellectually, but you’ll be too busy containing your feet spasms in front of your roommate to care.
For all the dance numbers on this album, Franz still successfully manages to shake things up. The tail-end of “What She Came For” is a guitar breakdown of the most energetic caliber. The intro to “Can’t Stop Feeling” is a blatant example of hip-hop influences that have seeped into this album. The four minutes of synthesizer and drums at the end of “Lucid Dreams” become reminiscent of an LCD Soundsystem track.
“Dream Again” is by far away the slowest track of the album, a brief ambient number with echoing voices and xylophones creating a captivating dreamscape feel. And closer, “Katherine Kiss Me,” is a quaint little acoustic number (think “Eleanor Put Your Boots On” off You Could Have It So Much Better) that brings an unexpected but not displeasing end to a volume of dance hits. The band’s versatility is here. It’s just stacked on the back half of the album.
If you’re on the prowl for some groovy tunes, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is hands down the album you are looking for. You’ll have your friends, and maybe even your parents, on their toes in no time.
–Liz
