Franz Ferdinand: always sleazy, never easy

If Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been as hip as his Glasgow successors, World War I would have been decided in a dance-off. Alas, old people are just never cool enough — and the quartet's new record, "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand," debuts just shy of 95 years too late. (Better late than never?)

Historical fantasies aside, Scottish thumpers Franz Ferdinand have returned to the rock club and disco hall alike with their first album since 2005's sophomore effort, "You Could Have It So Much Better." At a time when bands left and right are turning to bass-heavy, pop-crossover dance-alongs (see: Coldplay's "Vida la Vida," The Killers' "Human"), Franz Ferdinand's rockers from Glasgow outgroove them all with a record that often has more in common with house music and techno than with their earlier rock'n'roll hallmarks "Take Me Out" and "Do You Want To."

So . . . how did we get from hi-hat abusin', left-foot movin' Franz to body-grindin', computer-minded Franz?

The story of "Lucid Dreams" can help us figure out just what exactly is going on with this album. Late last year, the band released the single "Lucid Dreams" as an early teaser. The tune was classic Franz: mildly danceable art rock, seductive melodies and a handful of Alex Kapranos's ever-sexy yelps.

Enter "Tonight," and a new version of "Lucid Dreams." Once a four-minute rock song, "Lucid Dreams" has transformed into an eight-minute acid-disco-house remix of its former self; gone is the catchy, upbeat chorus, replaced by a slithering, bass-driven exploration into quasi-psychedelic textures. Where the original song ended, the new version plunges into a three-minute synthesizer orgy that's pure house music, through and through, with a little drums thrown in for good measure.

"Can't Stop Feeling" picks up where the new "Lucid Dreams" stops, with a keyboard riff that would make even the prissiest dance-hall queen want to grind her hips into the always sleazy but never easy boys of Glasgow.

In a sense, the transformation of "Lucid Dreams" illustrates what has happened to Franz Ferdinand since we last heard from them in 2005. The rough garage-rock element of their first two albums has given way to polished but aggressive synthesizers, blended with the core elements of that classically sexy Franz sound.

Album opener "Ulysses" exploits the Archduke's new groove in style, with an extra dose of seductive whispering on Kapranos' part for good measure ("Come on, let's get hiiiiiigh" and "Last night was wiiiiiild"). "Twilight Omens" rewrites the basics of 2004's "Auf Ausch;" this time, Kapranos abandons themes of frustratingly unrequited love to croon about writing his hook-up's name on the back of his hand, and even typing it upside-down on his calculator like a dirty word.

Yet Franz preserves some of the softer and sweeter elements of their last album, replacing "You Can Have It"'s "Eleanor" with the candidly tender "Katherine Kiss Me" and the first minute or so of "Bite Hard." But if you're looking for a bunch of "Hey There, Delilahs," you won't find them in this solid collection of sweaty Scottish disco-rock tunes.

If Archduke Franz were alive today, there's no doubt about what he would be like. He'd be that guy who swaggers around the club, cologne reeking from his leather jacket and beer wafting from his breath, stuttering as he tells your girlfriend (like Kapranos in "No You Girls"), "Oh you know, Yes I love — I mean I'd love to get to know you." So sketchy, but DAMMIT, he always gets the girl in the end!

(Originally published in The Stanford Daily on 1/20/2009, http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=2390)