"RMudkips" (rmudkips)
08/31/2013 at 02:13 • Filed to: music, franz ferdinand
4
13|
"RMudkips" (rmudkips)
08/31/2013 at 02:13 • Filed to: music, franz ferdinand | 4
| 13 |
Back in 2004, four Scottish friends decided one day, "what if Blondie and alt-rock combined for disco-y rocking tunes, and everyone knew it wasn't just a singer, but a band?"
Then this album came out. Nine years on, they've just came out with only their fourth LP, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
I started out listening to a bit of their singles material ever since I was browsing a Bionicle fan site and found someone named...Franz Ferdinand (this was '05, '06). He had the artwork for "You Could Have it So Much Better" for his avatar and all. He made Bionicle comics and they had him wear a Mohawk. I called that haircut "Franz Ferdinand" until I knew better. These are the moments I cringe.
Let's start with the singles on the album. There's their most famous song, "Take Me Out", a simple song about being a "sniper" for a girl's heart (heh, assassinations heh), with an urgency that came straight out of the late 70's...and you can dance to it too!. "Take Me Out" has this slow-down intro at the beginning that just descends right into their indie-punk-dance signature tone.
"Dark Of The Matinee" sort of continues that theme, except there's an "epic" quality to it, and in a verse, you'll find yourself go from a simple structure, to punk, to funk, and back to punk. The variety in the verse again slowly unravels to some "happy" sounding chords, calling back the story of a famous man seeking true happiness.
"This Fire" is relatively tame compared to the other singles, despite it being a lot more punk than the previous two. It's straightforward, a love song about clubbing and crushing. I find the bass at the background keeps it just disco enough, even right through the ending of the song.
"Darts Of Pleasure" is another trip through different elements, on one hand you have a straight yelling-through-the-mic style, and on the chorus you reveal a voice that's clean, very pretty, and contrasts to the chords that are being blasted at you. It's pretty dark sounding, save for Alex's voice, and a good example of Franz Ferdinand living up to its "artistic rock" reputation. I don't really get the salmon drinker German part though.
And we have "Michael". It's a ridiculously taboo subject of the time, condensed into some really otherwise-regular lyrics of "two friends getting it together in a very sexy way". You can hear a bit of a Police influence in terms of guitar structure, but the rest of it seems mostly generic punk fodder. I like it more for concept than execution, but hey. it's still alright.
As for the rest of the tracks? Nearly all of them are actually as good, if not better, than the singles that you could recognize on the album. "Jacqueline" is a haunting acoustic story that goes into a dark punk atmosphere, with an urgency that rocks the metaphorical CBGB all the way. Its drums are frantic, its guitar chords are angry and insane, and the bass is just pumping out crazy...and calms down mostly for the next track.
"Come On Home" sounds so perfectly cool and thumping, as if Franz Ferdinand were secretly disco revivalists trying to go with the alt-rock sounds of the 00's, with a Chicesque rhythm that pounds, and calms to a close.
I think "Cheating On You" would be my favorite on the album. It has a really raw vibe, albeit being produced in the 00's it's not as raw as this kind of music deserves to be. A simple punk piece that's straight Franz. I can't really explain it too well, but the frantic instrumentation and the key change in the bridge really make the song more entertaining than it should be.
"40 Feet" brings a slight jazz influence to the table, and experiences a echo that give the guitar a certain distance while Alex sings about jumping down a cliff. The chorus I feel is just generic, but the verses are just pretty, especially given Alex's relatively clean cutting voice swirling around the drums. to the jazzy "la la la" part, which goes into an otherwise generic chorus...until you hear to bending lead guitar sound that concludes the album. It almost sounds too much like "Matinee" to me, but hey, some of it is artsy!
"Auf Achse" is a relatively soft track, with some ridiculous disco influence that starts off the track. It still rocks a bit, but it's relatively calm and almost relaxing.
"Tell Her Tonight" brings a slightly psychedelic-influenced chorus, as if the chorus belonged on an old 60's record. The bridge part is actually pretty nice, and perfectly fits their aesthetic in terms of the band overall.
Overall, I think the album's really great. Its punk-dance combination really hits home with a suave cool beat, and feels artsy without trying really, really hard. It's the kind of music that's got mainstream appeal, but sets its roots on the art area that the band brilliantly occupies. I think it's an overall pretty cool album, without rather trying too hard to fit in, it sets its own moods and tones and keeps it going all the way through. It's a good return to my childhood, and to the Glasgow underground that birthed those Scottish friends.
PRBot II
> RMudkips
08/31/2013 at 00:21 |
|
Franz Ferdinand reminds me of my college days.
...
Shit, I'm too old to be on the internet.
|
RMudkips
> PRBot II
08/31/2013 at 00:34 |
|
You're not THAT old.
|
PRBot II
> RMudkips
08/31/2013 at 00:45 |
|
Not compared to life in general, but I've been seeing a lot of comments with "I'm 18", or "I'm 20" around the interweb. I don't even have a lawn, but Goddamn.
|
RMudkips
> PRBot II
08/31/2013 at 00:54 |
|
Well, if you need anything to cheer you up, there are more people that are in their 30's than there are 20's and 10's I suppose.
promoted by the color red
> RMudkips
08/31/2013 at 02:09 |
|
Childhood? I was totally rocking this in high school as I shifted away from my "rap-hip/hop" phase into my indie rock one.
Oh God, the level of cringe from those photos...
|
RMudkips
> promoted by the color red
08/31/2013 at 02:10 |
|
I think the general rule is that you will cringe every time you remember something in your childhood.
|
promoted by the color red
> RMudkips
08/31/2013 at 02:12 |
|
Facebook lets me relive the horror that was my misshapen hair and a time before I realized that clothes came in sizes other than the first thing you saw on the rack.
|
RMudkips
> promoted by the color red
08/31/2013 at 02:15 |
|
I just realized today that I fit better in "small" than in "medium"...this is life changing.
Hoccy
> RMudkips
08/31/2013 at 03:00 |
|
Because Burnout 3: Takedown
Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW.
> PRBot II
08/31/2013 at 03:14 |
|
Nah, i'm as old as you.
Enjoying this thing at my college days, all night playing in my kia crapcan with very small amoount of sleep.
Good ol' times
|
RMudkips
> Hoccy
08/31/2013 at 03:14 |
|
Sure, at least it's Franz Ferdinand.
Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
> RMudkips
08/31/2013 at 11:41 |
|
Good review.
|
RMudkips
> Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
08/31/2013 at 12:47 |
|
Ha, thanks. I'll try to do more, but definitely not this length.