Top 50 Albums of the 00s - #34: Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

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The first time I heard "Take Me Out" was at a friend's wedding. He and his new wife were gleefully stomping around the dance floor at the song's first few notes. My friend happens to be a huge music fan who is always up on the latest trends. I have no idea if he gave the DJ some helpful requests (read: demands) or I was simply behind the curve. Either way, in that moment I knew I was hearing something special.

For all the fawning heaped upon The Strokes when their wholly derivative debut became a smashing success, Franz Ferdinand was the band taking punk rock into the next millennium. Their hit single didn't sound identical to Tom Petty's "American Girl." It was something new. If I were counting down the top songs of the 00s, there is no question that it would end up in the top ten. I must confess that this has been my go-to karaoke song ever since that wedding. It's easy to sing and nobody can hear it without being won over. That it's shown up in countless commercials and hasn't lost its luster is testament to its greatness.

"Take Me Out" is the unquestionable triumph on the album. None of the other songs can compete with it. But "The Dark of the Matinee," "This Fire," and "40'" are all respectable tracks. As the band has shown on two subsequent releases, that's pretty much how they roll. Put together two or three superb songs and let the rest of the tracks just hang around. That's not to say the other songs are bad. They do a decent job of hanging around, supporting the real winners. Outside of "Take Me Out," it's not the most relistenable album, but gets high distinction for what it accomplished - bringing 1960s pre-punk to 2000s pop. The decade was littered with "Post-punk / New Wave Revival", from The Killers to The Bravery to The White Stripes, but nobody did a better job of adhering to those roots and making something compelling. They deserve credit for standing out from the crowd.





Previous Entries:
#35 - Rodrigo y Gabriela - Rodrigo y Gabriela
#36 - Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
#37 - Crooked Fingers - Red Devil Dawn
#38 - The National - Boxer
#39 - Hot Water Music - Caution
#40 - Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy
#41 - Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike
#42 - Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
#43 - Ladyhawk - Ladyhawk
#44 - José González - In Our Nature

First Blush: Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Glasgow's Franz Ferdinand burst onto the scene in 2004 with the smash hit, "Take Me Out." Their second record, while not as strong as the first, still served to build their popularity and

Track 1 - Ulysses
An incredibly simple and calm beat begins everything. Lead singer Alex Kapranos then comes in with a whisper. He sounds like Mike Muir on dopamine. This is weird. Then at 40 seconds, we punch in with some LCD Soundsystem stuff. And it starts to kick by the time we get to 1:00. "Lah, lalala, Ulysses. I find a new way, I found a new way baybaaah!" I mean, that sums up this dance tune better than I could. Also, this is friggin' AWESOME.

Track 2 - Turn It On
More LCD Soundsystem. Clearly this was intentional. This is reminding me of that hit song Elastica that one time they had a hit song. We're missing the punch we had on track one. And it's not as catchy as it should be (despite the solid drum work).

Track 3 - No You Girls
Spooky beginning, turns into a stomp that sounds almost exactly like "Talk about love" by Led Zeppelin (which was probably a ripoff of someone else), except not as rock and roll. Then at the 55 second mark, we hit the hook - it yanks us right along before combining itself with the Zeppelin riff. At 2:40, it breaks down boring just to build back up again. Good tune, derivative though it may be.

Track 4 - Twilight Omens
80s music. Not sure which one, but one of the lesser 80s genres. Like, way weaker than Bronksi Beat. Later we get just a bit of an edge here. But seriously, I half expect Anthony Michael Hall's bouffant to come around the corner at any moment. All that said, it's pretty good.

Track 5 - Send Him Away
The intro here is half Gary Glitter, half Yeasayer. But then it gets into a singsongy, dopey tune that sounds like it didn't make the cut when the Stranglers recorded it the first time. Rock N Roll Part III it is not. I'm hoping this is just a weird interlude track and not something about to derail the whole album.

Track 6 - Live Alone
Now they stole the boops and beeps from Funkytown! And the sound of a smoke machine! Then the beeps multiply and the vocals are waily, but not in a good way. Things are derailed. I suppose they're going for an MGMT thing here, but they are not pulling it off. It has devolved back into LCD Soundsystem again. Which is all fine and good, but I thought this was a rock album.

Track 7 - Bite Hard
A sparse, beaty intro goes into a Franz Ferdinand version of The Fratellis, which is weird because the bands are kinda similar, from the same town, but Franz Ferdinand has always been a lot better. The track's pretty fun, if overtly basic.

Track 8 - What She Came For
The bottom has dropped out. The vocals are kinda weak, and aside from the drums there ain't much else here. And I still feel like we're kinda back in Funkytown for some reason. It rocks in an obvious way at 1:20. They're mailing it in at this point. The song finishes a bit more triumphantly with a double-time stomp, but it was a lot to endure to get here.

Track 9 - Can't Stop Feeling
Practically a cover of LCD's "Tribulations". Not Franz's strong suit.

Track 10 - Lucid Dreams
Whoah. At nearly eight minutes, this is almost double the longest song they've ever released. I think that's a good sign. A dreamy beginning leads into a busy groove. But then at about 3:30 I'm starting to get bored. Perhaps I was wrong about the length premise. At 4:45, they seem bored. 6:52 - uhhh, yeah. That didn't work.

Track 11 - Dream Again
Pink Floyd echoey vocals at the outset. The vocals just don't seem very good on this record overall. Maybe in the two previous albums, their weakness was covered up by the guitar and, for some reason, they left them more naked this time around. Anyway, they're still bored. This is like one of those b-sides that you think, "yeah, no wonder they left this off the album. It's boring and doesn't make much sense." But it's on the album.

Track 12 - Katherine Kiss Me
Franz Ferdinand songs with girls names in them usually deliver. But this is downright sleeeeeeepy. I think they've been listening to The National. They shouldn't do that.

Well, what started off very promising ended up merely good. But in this day and age, I'll take merely good. There are a couple pretty fantastic tracks, but I don't see myself spinning the whole record much. Hopefully I'm wrong and will get the subtlety. But historically Franz Ferdinand hasn't been about subtlety. I can't really recommend it, but download those first four tracks and play 'em at your next party for sure.

Unyielding Commissioning Has a Bucket at the Ready

Oscar approaches - The Trib's Michael Phillips gives his Oscar rundown. You probably remember Phillips as the most frequent guest who filled in on At the Movies when Roger Ebert lost his voice due to illness. He's a very opinionated critic and made a good foil to Roeper's fluffy approach. Anyway, I dug his approach on this one.

Roll the credits already - Neatorama gives us the backstory on the six most famous Hollywood logos. Looking at them all lined up together, you have to admit that Warner Brothers is the coolest.

He bent his wookie - Mental Floss offers a Ralph Wiggum Test. I scored a 9/15. Really poor showing by me, and on five of those six misses, a little more thought would have gotten me to the right answer.

The new Village Voice? - The New York Times seems to keep getting more interested in non-mainstream music lately. First they had their infatuation with Andrew Bird's latest release, and now they have a pretty fluffy feature on the new album by Franz Ferdinand. The words are nothing earth-shattering, but embedded in the story, you can spin two songs from the album which are both friggin' fantastic, indicating that the album is a must-buy. (First Blush coming if I can get my hands on a copy here in Argentina).

Grodyyyy - Scene Stealers grosses us out with the Top 10 Unnerving Movie Scenes. I've only seen two of the movies listed and I'm pretty much OK with stopping there.