Franz_Ferdinand-Tonight_Franz_Ferdinand-2009-DV8

Artist: Franz Ferdinand

Title: Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Label: Domino

Genre: Indie

Bitrate: 202kbit av.

Time: 00:42:38

Size: 66.27 mb

Rip Date: 2009-01-10

Str Date: 2009-01-26



1. Ulysses 3:11

2. Turn It On 2:20

3. No You Girls 3:41

4. Twilight Omens 2:29

5. Send Him Away 2:59

6. Live Alone 3:29

7. Bite Hard 3:26

8. What She Came For 3:52

9. Can't Stop Feeling 3:02

10. Lucid Dreams 7:56

11. Dream Again 3:18

12. Katherine Kiss Me 2:55



Release Notes:



Naming themselves after the archduke whose assassination

sparked the First World War, the band mix grandeur and

pretension with a shrewd pop touch. Their self-titled debut

album didn't so much light up the charts as turn the sales

book into an inferno, while follow-up 'You Could Have It So

Much Better' came equipped with a stunning arsenal of singles.



But then the trail goes cold. The band retreat to Glasgow,

with the Franz Ferdinand citadel surrounded by the cloud of

rumour as a thousand lesser acts go screaming up the charts

only to fall back in a blaze of mediocrity.



Sitting idle since 2005, 'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand' is an

album long-delayed. Sessions with the slick pop machine

Xenomania ended badly, forcing the group to spend longer on

the album than they anticipated. During the prolonged

downtime, the band began exploring new influences, adding

electro, Afrobeat and æ60s garage sounds to the studio

jukebox.



Opening track and comeback single 'Ulysses' encapsulates the

drama of the band's return. Franz Ferdinand emerge from their

hiatus with a bass-heavy intro, before Alex Kaprano's familiar

voice hisses and seethes from the speakers. As dancefloor

friendly as a handshake with Erol Alkan, it name-checks James

Joyce's groundbreaking novel amid the refrain, 'I found a new

way'. At times gloriously over the top, it never loses its

shrewd pop vision ending in a maelstrom of antique synths

being pushed into the 21st Century.



This confusing blend of past and present runs through the

throbbing veins of 'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand'. The gentle

African skank of 'Send Him Away' rumbles along nicely, almost

staining the coffee table with its polite Afrobeat mannerisms.

But suddenly the band erupts into a frenetic Fela Kuti-style

breakdown - like a circuit pushed to overloading, 'Send Him

Away' sparks and spasms into life.



Shimmering disco scenery dominates the landscape of this

album. Producer Dan Carey recalls the adventurous spirit of

the Moroder era, as the band battle creaking antique synths to

find their true voice. 'Twilight Omens' opens with an almost

Daft Punk-inspired riff, before leaping headlong into groovy

Roxy Music-style rhythm. This is an album that right from its

title down to the last notes is bathed in moonlight, its skin

bleached with the glitter of the disco ball.



The album's centrepiece is 'Lucid Dreams', possibly the most

stunning and ambitious recording the band have put their names

to. The vocals are hidden in the mix, allowing the runaway

momentum of the song to gallop ahead of Kapranos. A triumph of

Darey's production skills, 'Lucid Dreams' threatens to spin

off in almost a dozen different directions, held together by

the rhythmic gravity of Paul Thomson's insistent drum beats.

It runs for an epic seven minutes, shattering Franz

Ferdinand's pop framework into a thousand electronic

fragments.



Refining and transcending their familiar pop formula,

'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand' is the band's most complete work to

date. Worth the wait, and in all honesty better than we could

ever have hoped for.