Opting not to fix what broke them, You Could Have It So Much Better serves up more of the stylish, angular sound that worked so well on Franz Ferdinand's debut. After years of rehearsing in abandoned Glasgow warehouses and playing in relatively obscure groups like the Yummy Fur, it's perfectly understandable why the band chose not to mess with a good thing -- and why they chose to follow up the breakthrough success of Franz Ferdinand so quickly. But, after a year and a half of near-instant acclaim and constant touring, Franz Ferdinand return with songs that just aren't as consistently good as the album that made them so successful in the first place. A lot of You Could Have It So Much Better feels like a super-stylized caricature of the band's sound, with exaggeratedly spiky guitars, brooding crooning, and punky-yet-danceable beats. This isn't an entirely bad thing: "The Fallen" begins the album with a wicked, gleeful welcome back that embraces the jaunty mischief running through most of Franz Ferdinand's best moments, while "I'm Your Villain" effortlessly nails the darkly sexy vibe they strived for on Franz Ferdinand. Meanwhile, the famous friends, arty parties, and "shocking" homoeroticism of "Do You Want To" -- which feels more like a victory lap than a comeback single -- play like knowing, tongue-in-cheek self-parody. However, too many tracks on You Could Have It So Much Better are witty and energetic in the moment but aren't especially memorable. "You're the Reason I'm Leaving," "What You Meant," "This Boy," and the oddly anti-climactic finale, "Outsiders," are Franz-lite -- not at all bad, but not as good as even their early B-sides and certainly not up to the level of "Take Me Out." What helps save the album from being completely predictable are slower moments like the pretty, jangly "Walk Away" and atmospheric, piano-driven songs such as "Fade Together" (which really should've been the final track). Best of all is "Eleanor Put Your Boots On," a gorgeous, Beatlesque allad that suggests that if Franz Ferdinand have songs this good in them, they're selling themselves, and their fans, short with most of the songs here (you could have it so much better, indeed). Not so much a sophomore slump as a rushed follow-up, You Could Have It So Much Better probably would've been better if Franz Ferdinand had waited until they had a batch of songs as consistent as their first album, but as it stands, it's still pretty good.
I'm going to vent a little - but only a little, and on an anal point that most of you won't give a flying fuck about. Franz Ferdinand's sophomore record You Could Have It So Much Better was largely a letdown - really, a caricature of the sound of their debut album and their copious influences. But it has a few stellar tunes that continue to hit me with the force of a sledgehammer every time I h...
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Songs on repeat one: Arctic Monkeys' I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor & Still Take You Home, Madrugada's Salt, Afghan Whigs' Night By Candlelight & BulletproofFav vital sign: gdolario's status: i got 99 problemsFunniest description of me on MOG yet, courtesy of SatisfiedMind614: Anna is crazy, but she is from Greece so we let her get away with a lot. If you are having trouble following her...
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And so it came and went. The Mogiversary. Three years. Where once I would mark them off month by month, this one faded into obscurity. Nothing worth noting, nothing to say. I guess the spark has gone. That's not to say I didn't try. Those late nights, the days I'd check in on you everyday, every hour, just to see how things were going, those times I couldn't tear myself away. But that was a lon...
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I've been browsing through my previous posts & I realized that I might come off bitter, romance wise. I mean, I've burried x-boyfriends 6 feet under in more than one posts, I've asked you to share lyrics that put love in the doghouse, I've demostrated a tendency to post lyrics concerning strictly sex & I've claimed total identification to a song titled "Why Do You Love Me".I feel like sheding s...
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Songs on repeat one: Arctic Monkeys' I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor & Still Take You Home, Madrugada's Salt, Afghan Whigs' Night By Candlelight & BulletproofFav vital sign: gdolario's status: i got 99 problemsFunniest description of me on MOG yet, courtesy of SatisfiedMind614: Anna is crazy, but she is from Greece so we let her get away with a lot. If you are having trouble following her...
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I'm going to vent a little - but only a little, and on an anal point that most of you won't give a flying fuck about. Franz Ferdinand's sophomore record You Could Have It So Much Better was largely a letdown - really, a caricature of the sound of their debut album and their copious influences. But it has a few stellar tunes that continue to hit me with the force of a sledgehammer every time I h...
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A very under-appreciated song from Franz Ferdinand's "You Could Have it So Much Better."
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Appearantly, this song (Do You Want To- Franz Ferdinand) was used in the Anime for Paradise Kiss... random, I know... In ANY CASE, I'm new here so I'm still trying to figure out the inner workings of this site... *brow furrowed in consentration* Ummm, I'm not to good at spelling so I implore you to forgive any spelling errors you might stumble across... Also, I believe somthing that deserves...
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Before we go any further, we'll just say that, yes, Whitney Port was at this party at new epicly designed lounge Aspen Social Club, and yes, we took a photo of her with her (we guess) boyfriend or whatever. Happy...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 The Fallen |
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| 2 Do You Want To |
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| 3 This Boy |
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| 4 Walk Away |
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| 5 Evil and a Heathen |
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| 6 You're the Reason I'm Leaving |
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| 7 Eleanor Put Your Boots On |
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| 8 Well That Was Easy |
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| 9 What You Meant |
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| 10 I'm Your Villain |
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| 11 You Could Have It So Much Better |
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| 12 Fade Together |
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| 13 Outsiders |
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Click to purchase…
© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "You Could Have It So Much Better")
