Frank Ferdinand “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand”

Rating - 6 / 10

It’s hard to remember anything about Franz Ferdinand’s 2005 sophomore effort, “You Could Have it So Much Better.”

Other than the sanguine piano ballad, “Eleanor Put Your Boots On,” which dares to be different, it’s difficult to name a single track. Their new album, “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand,” however, is more indicative of the general consistency of the boys’ tunes than a lack of chops.

Franz basically uses the already canonical 2004 single “Take Me Out” ‑ they play it at football games ‑ as a template; disco-stomp drum beat, funky, right-angle guitar riffs and a shouted sing-along chorus and tweaks the formula slightly for each song.

The Scottish group’s long-awaited follow-up kicks off with four such punk disco burners, each slightly less memorable than the next. Although sinister, bass-heavy opener “Ulysses,” with its clearly enunciated, sing-along chorus is a positive start.

The next three songs do very little to distinguish themselves from one another; it’s as if the boys had four years to record a follow up and waited until the last six weeks to write another batch of “Take Me Out’s.” Also, it’s hard to believe that frontman Alex Kapranos knows so many devious, cold-hearted women that he is desperate to get away from.

It’s only when the Scots loosen up and try different things on the later half of the album are they able to forge some exciting moments. “Live Alone,” with it’s faux string section, chicken scratch guitar and sweeping chorus, is more disco-pop than dance-punk, and for some reason I’m comfortable listening to the former in 2009.

Elsewhere, the otherwise ordinary “Lucid Dreams” shakes things up with an extended four-minute coda of electronic bleeps and bloops which ends up sounding pretty rad.

Best of all, the capper, is a gorgeous acoustic ballad titled, “Katherine Kiss Me” which finds Kapranos unusually disarmed and sincere.
Why can’t they have more moments like this? Because then they wouldn’t be Franz Ferdinand.

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