February 3, 2009
Lucid Dreams…
So, Franz Ferdinand’s new album, Tonight:Franz Ferdinand, finally hit. They’re one of bands I actually follow and actively search for, so I was happy to snap that shit up using the amazing powers of Amazon Prime I now possess.
I’m really not that impressed.
I mean, it’s all solid. The vast majority is very listenable, and I’ve been enjoying listening to it on shuffle the past few days. But I have yet to find one song that’s especially memorable in any way. Their initial self-titled album had many, such as Take Me Out, Dark of the Matinee, Michael… the majority kicked major ass. The second album, You Could Have It So Much Better, was less filled with hits, but still had some great, clearly standout hits, such as the title song, and The Fallen…
I have yet to find a song on Tonight that makes me want to put it on constant repeat, and honestly, that’s kind of my criteria for a good song. I listen to songs I love constantly, over and over, endlessly. Nothing has really made me want to do that. I mean, their single for this album, Ulysses, is pretty good, but not like… amazing? I don’t know.
A lot of talk was made about how they were going to mix things up a bit with this album, and use more electronic influences and whatnot. You can certainly hear it, and several songs just have these long, pointless, electronica finishes to them? I like that kind of music, but I’m not especially a fan of it mixed with my Franz. Still, it’s not BAD? It’s just not stand out and doesn’t excite me.
The songs are also, on a whole, much slower than previous albums. The first had like… no slow songs. The second had like two. This one feels like it has a whole lot, but the problem might be that shuffle is hitting them a lot? I don’t know. There’s certainly not any especially fast songs. I like my fast songs.
So I guess I’m underwhelmed. Not as underwhelmed as I was by, say, The Else, which was just… completely forgettable, unfortunately. But underwhelmed. Still, if you’re a Franz fan, this is still an album worth owning. If you haven’t really listening to the band, you should probably just pick up their first album, though. Cause that one is just golden, and awesome, and why I love the band so.