Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

FRANZ FERDINAND
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Feeling a little creatively stunted by the angular pop of their first two albums, Britain’s Franz Ferdinand decided it was time for something slightly different. So, avoiding the sheen of a conventional studio, they holed up in the unlikely setting of a crumbling former drug rehabilitation centre in Scotland. Superslinkies hung from the ceiling to act as primitive spring reverb, the windows were soundproofed and the band set about attempting to make a full-on disco record.

From the squelchy synths of opening track Ulysses, the shift in direction is obvious. “C’mon, let’s get high,” frontman Alex Kapranos suggests before a massive chorus shows that, though this is a departure, it is still recognisably Franz Ferdinand. No You Girls plays like a chemically-enhanced The Dark Of The Matinee and uses the rattling of a human skeleton for percussion. Similarly experimentally, Send Him Away was recorded to one mic in the cellar under the makeshift studio’s stage. While seventies synths give the record a distinctly electro feel, its sound is also an eclectic mix of African influences, funk, R&B and disco-glam.

If ever there was an indication of the vivacity and boldness of Tonight: Franz Ferdinand and producer Dan Carey’s chaotic, experimental vision it is Lucid Dreams. With the now familiar squidgy techno bass, the song races through a dizzying barrage of ideas threaded together by a galloping drumbeat. Then, at the five minute mark when you might expect it to start winding down, it moves into three minutes of acid-house madness in a Super Furry Animals kind of way. It’s a daring move which could have backfired, yet somehow it works wonderfully and is the album’s strongest moment. Katherine Kiss Me then draws things to a close in an incongruously acoustic manner. Like a comedown, but a gentle one.

Although the leering lyrics and smutty wink with which they do their thing becomes less appealing the longer in the tooth they get, their joyousness is infectious and such keenness to stretch beyond their well-established pop brand should be applauded. Okay, so it’s typically throwaway, but Tonight: Franz Ferdinand succeeds as a hedonistic dance-floor filler. When they first burst onto the scene in 2004, Franz Ferdinand stated that they aimed to create “music to make girls dance.” Five years on, they are adhering to that manifesto more so than ever.