"I found a new way, baby," Alex Kapranos snarls on "Ulysses," Tonight's lead single and opening track, and he's almost right. Franz Ferdinand took awhile to record this album after releasing You Could Have It So Much Better as quickly as possible after their breakthrough debut, spending a couple of years coming up with the concept of a "dirty pop" album and trying out dance and pop producers like Erol Alkan and Girls Aloud sound-shapers Xenomania before settling on Dan Carey, who has worked with everyone from CSS to Kylie Minogue. The group tried hard to make these songs a deliberate break from their previous music, and the album is nothing if not deliberate: a concept album about a debauched night out and the morning after, Tonight is more focused than You Could Have It So Much Better, and on the surface, it sounds different than what came before. The band's normally de rigueur angular post-punk guitars are dialed down in favor of beats, bass, and lots of keyboards, all of which are on display on "Ulysses," which, like You Could Have It So Much Better's "Do You Want To?," initially sounds like an odd single choice, then makes perfect sense after a few listens. Kapranos whispers like a devil on your shoulder as the band takes its time building to disco-punk euphoria.
Throughout the rest of album, however, Franz Ferdinand alternates between putting their rave-ups in slightly different skins and taking some real chances with their music. With the most familiar-sounding songs at the top, Tonight's song sequencing might be the most pop thing about it: "Turn It On"'s stop-start rhythms,"Send Him Away"'s Afro-pop-tinged guitars, and "Can't Stop Feeling"'s DFA-like percussion and fuzzy synths are minor refinements on the sound the band has used since Franz Ferdinand. A few songs transcend templates, like the unrepentantly rakish swagger of "No You Girls," which boasts saucy lyrics like "kiss me where your eye won't meet me" and a cleverly twisting chorus that expresses the album's theme of smart enough to know better hedonism perfectly. "Live Alone"'s disco-fied push-pull between solitude and intimacy makes ambivalence exciting, and "Bite Hard"'s punchy drums are the sound of dancing on your conscience's grave. The band saves Tonight's most interesting songs for last: "Lucid Dreams" is oddly dark and jubilant, setting its fantasies to one of the album's boldest arrangements -- whether or not the way it trails off on a four-minute jam is successful is a matter of taste, but it's a welcome risk on an album that often feels safe despite its attempts to shake things up. Likewise, the way the acoustic closer "Katherine Kiss Me" transforms "No You Girls"' raw nighttime demands into wry daytime flirtation is so clever that it makes the rest of Tonight all the more puzzling -- it's often catchy and kinetic in the moment, yet it still feels like Franz Ferdinand has the potential to do more with their music than just slightly tweak and polish a sound they established several albums ago.
WEEKEND VIDEOFranz Ferdinand"No You Girls"Tonight...Franz Ferdinand2009iTunesNew sounds show up gradually over the course of Franz Ferdinand's third album: a groove that's more rubbery than usual here, a hint of dreamy synth there. Those flourishes never add up to a radical reinvention. But they don't...
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Franz Ferdinand is back (as if they ever left) and they have a new album coming out on the 27th of January. The disc is entitled "Tonight", and embodies the feelings that come from a night time of elation and debauchery according to Kapranos and company. The new disc shows off the bands progression; the guitars are less brash, the bass funkiness is cranked up and keyboards add to the slinky g...
More >
Although recent statistics show that approximately 57.3% of the internet is made up of the words "Animal Collective" (is it the going to be the best album of 2008, is it an incoherent mess or is it completely over blogged? aaaaaaaah) , I have had my ears well and truly stolen by the latest album from Franz Ferdinand, which is out on February 26th on Domino. For me, at least, "Tonight:.." has pr...
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I have, for the last several years pinned Franz Ferdinand as a typical "singles" band, they create something really catchey, put it on the radio and then watch the money roll in.It seems that the band is continuing in this fashion for their latest album, due out on Jan 26th; Tonight. The opening track; Ulysses starts off with a funky whispering and powers into a "scream-along" chorus that just ...
More >
The Franz are back ladies and gentlemen and whether you're a fan or not, they look set to take over the world once again. Their latest album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is on the cusp of release (Jan 26th if you didn't already know) and their first single Ulysses officially has a video.
More >
Franz Ferdinand is back (as if they ever left) and they have a new album coming out on the 27th of January. The disc is entitled "Tonight", and embodies the feelings that come from a night time of elation and debauchery according to Kapranos and company. The new disc shows off the bands progression; the guitars are less brash, the bass funkiness is cranked up and keyboards add to the slinky g...
More >
I have, for the last several years pinned Franz Ferdinand as a typical "singles" band, they create something really catchey, put it on the radio and then watch the money roll in.It seems that the band is continuing in this fashion for their latest album, due out on Jan 26th; Tonight. The opening track; Ulysses starts off with a funky whispering and powers into a "scream-along" chorus that just ...
More >
Hello all! I have just successfully finished listening to the entire new Franz Ferdinand album and I gotta say, excellently done. Not every song is a favourite, but I have my few..."Ulysses" : Ok, who doesn't love the single? It's amazing. Definitely still Franz, but evolved. The sound is great. The first taste of their use of electronic style."Lucid Dreams" : Wow...very electronic for t...
More >
WEEKEND VIDEOFranz Ferdinand"No You Girls"Tonight...Franz Ferdinand2009iTunesNew sounds show up gradually over the course of Franz Ferdinand's third album: a groove that's more rubbery than usual here, a hint of dreamy synth there. Those flourishes never add up to a radical reinvention. But they don't...
More >
The boys recently performed their terrific single “No You Girls” on BBC Radio 1, along with a cover of Britney Spears’ “Womanizer.” I’d like to pretend that they were responding my to call for Womanizer Covers. Why else would they do it? Maybe because they think “It’s been the best song out in the last [...]
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Franz Ferdinand played Roseland Ballroom last night in NYC. Check out the videos below
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Although recent statistics show that approximately 57.3% of the internet is made up of the words "Animal Collective" (is it the going to be the best album of 2008, is it an incoherent mess or is it completely over blogged? aaaaaaaah) , I have had my ears well and truly stolen by the latest album from Franz Ferdinand, which is out on February 26th on Domino. For me, at least, "Tonight:.." has pr...
More >
A nice sweaty Thursday evening was had by all at the Riviera with some of Scotland’s finest exports. Yep, the stylish boys of Franz Ferdinand are touring in support of their third album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, and delivered those new tracks with charisma and some added oomph that seems missing from the album. The sold out crowd responded passionately to both new and old songs—most notably
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watch the band look sexxxy and disheveled and freak out in a laundromat. i'd totally let alex kapranos separate my whites. their new album Tonight drops on January 26th.
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The Franz are back ladies and gentlemen and whether you're a fan or not, they look set to take over the world once again. Their latest album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is on the cusp of release (Jan 26th if you didn't already know) and their first single Ulysses officially has a video.
More >
| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Ulysses |
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| 2 Turn It On |
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| 3 No You Girls |
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| 4 Send Him Away |
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| 5 Twilight Omens |
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| 6 Bite Hard |
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| 7 What She Came For |
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| 8 Live Alone |
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| 9 Can't Stop Feeling |
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| 10 Lucid Dreams (New Album Version) |
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| 11 Dream Again |
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| 12 Katherine Kiss Me |
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Click to purchase…
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 "Tonight")
