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Resurrecting Franz Ferdinand
Indie | Thursday 19th June 2014 | nashtag
Next month Franz Ferdinand will be releasing a new single. As someone who remembers when we all started rocking out to Take Me Out in our lunchbreaks, it's hard to believe that those four Glaswegian boys in their shirts and ties have been getting our toes tapping since '02. The band has come along way since teenage girls were skipping the first sixteen songs on Now 58 to get dancing to Matinée, and though the last few years have seen them fade somewhat, this new release could see their rebirth.
Though the first two albums are almost partners, with the same feel and focus, and the same irresistible temptation to jump up and sing along, Franz Ferdinand have spent the last nine years evolving and experimenting. And, if you were thirteen when their self-titled début album was released, so have you. That's one of the things Alex Kapranos and the boys get just spot on when it comes to indie music and it's audience. They know us. They grow with us. They are the backing music for the drawn-out adolescence of the genre. Their music has matured as its listeners have, but without their classics growing stale. I'm listening to You Could Have It So Much Better as I write this; it's still that good.
Another pleasant surprise about Franz Ferdinand is that they pull-off subversion for suburbia. For those of us too tame for the Sex Pistols, or who could never have got away with have an album by The Clash in the house, Franz Ferdinand were the slow-burn release; the rebellion your parents never noticed. With their clean-cut look and radio-ready lyrics, your Mum and Dad couldn't possibly object. By the time Ulysses came out it was too late; we already owned all their CDs. And long before then, those of us listening hard enough were escaping the conservative countryside with The Fallen, and revelling in the sexual ambiguity of the lyrics in Michael.
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand signalled the band's branch into electronica and unlike many bands branching into new genres, they never missed a beat. Though their fourth album didn't quite seem to reach popular acclaim, the band's name still holds strong. Their new single Stand on the Horizon is catching attention; The Horrors' Tom Furse has already produced his own extrapolated remix of the track
The long and the short of it; the guitar riff of Take Me Out will never grow old. You'll be singing This Boy under your breathe when you're forty. Lucid Dreams will always be worth the 8 minutes it takes to play out. Stand on the Horizon may just be the band's revival, with Kapranos echoing the ambiance of earlier albums; the classic put-on-your-dancing-shoes appeal, and the in-joke British references we can all enjoy. However, the track is just fresh enough that it's not a return to the old formula, but an almost nostalgic revisit of the earlier days. With this new release, Franz Ferdinand have been resurrected. Although, let's be honest, they never did die.
Emily Nash @_nashtag
