This week's album is inspired by weekends, or rather seedy weekend nights. For Scottish dance rock quartet Franz Ferdinand, weekend nights seemingly blur into place about seven times a week, given the glimpse into the night lifestyle that is Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. Certainly, the concept is not necessarily the most profound of all concept albums, but for a band who lives to make girls dance in the front row, the idea works swimmingly.
A life of boozing and blazing through the evening and the fallout of one too many 4 AM rendezvous shines through on Tonight, the group's third full-length production. The sound at times resembles the harmonizing of the Beatles with a groove that shows their influences yet remains a formula all their own, with lead vocalist Alex Kapranos crooning smoothly over an incessant love/hate relationship with his female pursuits. They opted to insert synthesizer/organ riffs in place of previous guitar licks, and the result is one of the best dance rock albums this side of James Murphy.
Their eye for hooks shines through on "Ulysses" and "No You Girls", the lead singles from the record used in countless commercials for their infectious melodies.
A new wrinkle in the band's catalogue includes the combusting electro breakdown on album highlight "Lucid Dreams", but the experimentation doesn't stop there. (Note: the second version of "Lucid Dreams" in the player is the version they play live, and was not originally included on the album). The spaced-out finale combination of "Dream Again" and "Katherine Kiss Me" perfectly characterizes the mindset of the end of another night impossible to remember.
On that note, here's to another night to forget. Franz Ferdinand will understand.
