Four middle-aged men discover a dance element to their music... and it’s good!
It maybe a risky business, an indie rock band discovering a dance element to their music. Yet that’s what Franz Ferdinand have done on this record, and it seems oddly dignified. In fact, it’s really, really good.
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is the sound of the Glaswegian post-punk combo straining beyond the limitations of a four-piece rock band into funkier, poppier, more soulful territory. Guitars are effected-up to sound less like guitars, high-hats are played frenetically at double speed, bass guitars are slapped, and spacey ‘70s synths, clavatrons, Theremins and drum pads are deployed without self-consciousness.
And yet they never stop sounding like Franz Ferdinand: it’s just that this time they’re Franz Ferdinand at a fancy dress party where they’ve come as Prince, Sly and the Family Stone and Stevie Wonder.
In short, opening track ‘Ulysses’ lights a fire, the awesome ‘Turn It On’ enflames it and the room continues to burn until the end of the album. Although they wear their hipster, disco, funk, soul mask for most of the record, they do occasionally peek out for some Kinksy pastoralism at points, and then at the end, possibly spent and in need of a cup of Horlicks, Alex Kapranos returns to his real voice for two lovely folk songs – ‘Dream Again’ and ‘Katherine Kiss Me’. It’s like the sing-song at the end of the party... and what a party!
Key Track: ‘Send Him Away’
A black and white affair for 'Fresh Strawberries' today.
Read More Franz Ferdinand prove to be cunning linguists with new German language track ‘Erdbeer Mund’, which comes with a fabulously psychedelic video.
Read More Following on from their rabble rousing Electric Picnic appearance last year, Franz Ferdinand have confirmed a headlining March 23 show in the Dublin Olympia. Tickets are €28.40.
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Starring Franz Ferdinand, Bob Dylan, Volcano Choir, Halves and a great deal more...
Read More Franz Ferdinand whet appetites for their new album with Come Home, Practically All, Is Nearly Forgiven, a 15-minute ‘Making Of’ short, which is worth watching for the glimpse of Alex Kapranos’ hairy legs alone.
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Alex Kapranos has been talking to Hot Press ahead of Franz Ferdinand’s visit to Electric Picnic where he’s hoping to catch Giorgio Moroder.
Read More Just over three-quarters of an hour of art-pop goodness.
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The Electric Picnic headliners have announced the release of their fourth studio album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action,.
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Check out LCD Soundsystem version of 'Live Alone'.
Read More Franz Ferdinand attempt to put some dub in the music and end up with (re)mixed results
Read More Already set to play two Irish dates in the coming months, the Scottish rockers have now added a Belfast date to their upcoming tour.
Read More Franz Ferdinand have just announced a full UK and Irish tour for 2009, including a date in Limerick in February and Dublin in March.
Read More With that long awaited third album in the pipeline, and an imminent Electric Picnic slot, Franz Ferdinad's Alex Kapranos talks to us about utilizing the doppler effect.
Read More Which member of Franz Ferdinand is taking a break from band duties to play a DJ set in Dublin?
Read More In what turned out to be a pretty well-kept secret, Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square was the venue on Thursday August 31 for Franz Ferdinand’s free Channel 4 Vodafone TBA gig.
Read More As the masses prepare to descend on Punchestown, we dispatch Hannah Hamilton to assess the festival fitness of one of this year's Oxegen buzz bands, Franz Ferdinand.
Read More In which prominent musicians fondle their crystal balls and deliver their World Cup predictions.
Read More Sorry not to get swept up in it all, but is the second Franz album really that good? To be honest, I’m not convinced and ‘Walk Away’ is not the kind of song to change my mind. It is a fairly dull mid-pacer that sounds positively pedestrian next to Maximo Park, Bloc Party et al.
Read More With strikingly disciplined ferocity, better melodies than the Manics, near-Teutonic efficiency and positively ballistic energy levels, it was hardly a massive shock that Franz blew the Point to shards
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**View the corresponding photo gallery here**
A flyover near the old Harland & Wolff shipyard was the starting point for a remarkable three months that has seen Franz Ferdinand challenging U2 and Coldplay for the title of ‘Biggest Band In The World'. Daredevil photographic exploits completed, Hot Press jumped on their tour bus and got the lowdown on Snoop, Bono, Kanye West, Natasha Bedingfield and nights of debauchery with the Scissor Sisters.
Read More There’s always added value with hotpress.com, and while this issue's cover story of Scotland’s biggest stars has plenty of visual treats, we’ve packed even more into our EXCLUSIVE Franz photo gallery.
Read More With their newly-released second album flying off the shelves this week, Franz Ferdinand fever will reach another peak on November 14, when their DVD becomes available.
Read More You Could Have It So Much Better is no radical body swerve, just the gratifying sound of a band gaining in confidence and prowess.
Read More Tackling the compelling subject matter of, er, oral pleasure, Franz are back with a vengeance and a single of the same standard as ‘Take Me Out’, but crucially, without the self-consciousness. Instead, they’re having bags of fun and it can’t help but rub off. Though there’s little more than an insanely bouncy and kitsch melody, the simplistic take guarantees it a place on the indie dancefloor for years to come. We’re so lucky.
Read More Give praise then for those Franz Ferdinand boys. Because it is their presence, and theirs alone, that makes this particular shindig worth attending.
Read More As 40,000 very satisfied punters will know, Franz Ferdinand were gigging in Belfast and Dublin this week - and Hot Press was with them every step of the way.
Read More After winning over the crowd at Belfast's Botanic Gardens yesterday (23 August) and aiming to do the same at Lansdowne Road tonight, Scottish indie-popsters Franz Ferdinand have already made plans to return to the Emerald Isle.
Read More Having insisted that their new album would be colour coded rather than named, Franz Ferdinand have done a U-turn.
Read More Here's a sneaky peek at the new Franz Ferdinand album artwork - the first Irish viewing no less. And what's it all about, you ask?
Read More Franz Ferdinand are asking their army of Irish admirers to help them assemble their first DVD.
Read More The Lansdowne Road line-up will also appear at Belfast’s Botanic Gardens
Read More The Pixies, Franz Ferdinand, Chemical Brothers and Basement Jaxx have been announced today for the BudRising Summer Music Shows
Read More 2004 was a bad year in politics. Maybe that’s why the music just got better.
Read More Top 30 albums & singles of 2004, as voted by our HP writers...
Read More Hotpress' exploitation of vulnerable musicians has reached new levels with us quite literally taking the shirt off Franz Ferdinand's back.
Read More If their rapid ascent has left Alex Kapranos & Co. gasping for air it doesn’t show as Franz Ferdinand launch into their Olympia set with a breakneck ‘Michael’. All that having to grab American audiences by the scruff of the neck has toughened them up to the point where on occasions they’re bizarrely redolent of Live & Dangerous-era Thin Lizzy.
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“Desperate to get back in the studio,” this year’s hottest band Franz Ferdinand are not about to rest on their laurels.
Read More Franz Ferdinand have been confirmed for a series of dates in Ireland this coming October!
Read More A year ago they were being paid fifty quid a gig, now they’re one of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet and about to take the Oxegen main stage by storm. A pun loving Stuart Clark discovers how Franz Ferdinand have become Top of the Fops.
Read More As Franz fever spreads across town, the hotpress.com paparazzi found the band enjoying the Dublin sunshine earlier today
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Never mind CD:UK, Top Of The Pops and Later With Jools – you really know you’ve made it when the phone rings and it’s Sparks telling you they love you. Stuart Clark hears about the irresistible rise of Glasgow hotshots Franz Ferdinand.
Read More April sees the anticipated return of Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand
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