Is anyone looking for the soundtrack to a night out in London? A concept album of sorts, Franz Ferdinand’s Tonight takes the listener through the chronicles of one wild night and the morning after, punctuated by song titles like “Turn It On,” “Twilight Omens,” “What She Came For” and “Lucid Dreams”. The music doesn’t stop roaring until the final two songs, and by that point, you will want to go back to track one, ready to relive Tonight all over again.
Listeners are first lured in with “Ulysses,” a lesson in old school Franz in the way it builds through time and exposes more layers with more listens. It is almost a red herring, as the rest of the album carries a big electronic torch. That is not to say the band has abandoned its classic big bass lines in favor of a reinvention, but this album is different enough to mark a change in sound. Never fear though; by the time the second track, “Turn It On” — with its shout-inspired vocals and seductive bellows of “yeah, yeah, yeah!” — is over, you will be more than happy to join the party and eager to see where it goes.
The next stop, “No You Girls,” is the standout track closest to being a full-blown anthem. Lead singer Alex Kapranos drives the song with his trademark ice-cool vocals across a huge landscape of clapping beats, heavy percussion — some of which is provided by a skeleton (you will know when you hear it) — and a big, repetitive chorus that goes, “No you girls never know how you make a boy feel!”. Only those who lack any sense of rhythm will be able to fight off the sheer power of Kapranos’ calls to the dance floor. The song also contains a clever lyrical twist at the end, a recurring theme throughout the entire album.
It is not just the music that makes this album pretty spectacular, but also the attitude that is conveyed. During the course of Tonight, relationships are made and broken, and you never know where the lyrical observations are coming from. On “What She Came For”, a decisive fly-on-the-wall approach is taken as Kapranos sings, “Whoah! Look out / You’re what she came for!” as the song delves into a huge instrumental breakdown at the end. Yet, on the 1980s-sounding, “Live Alone”, the band makes sure to add a personal touch with lyrics like, “Want to stay in love with you / So I’m going to live alone / Yeah I’ll be happy on my own.”
Franz Ferdinand has always been able to throw a few twists and turns our way — anyone who’s ever listened to the debut single, “Take Me Out,” knows that — and that contorted pattern is maintained in this album as well. Entirely produced by Dan Carey, who’s helmed music by British pop sprite Lily Allen and Australia’s Kylie Minogue, the album is cohesive from start to finish. Carey’s greatest imprint by far is the seven-minute electronic extravaganza, “Lucid Dreams.” At about the five-minute mark, the song almost delves into an all-out rave, but it is controlled enough to not feel scattered and lost. It is a real producer’s song and also marks a transition for the album, signifying the transformation of night into the morning after.
The two closing songs of the album play with this new feeling. First up is “Dream Again”, which retains the album’s synthesized sound though it is on the mid-tempo side of things. Kapranos’ light vocals declare, “I live to dream again.” Well, that’s a relief — everyone survived the night before. The closer, “Katherine Kiss Me,” meanwhile, is an acoustic, intelligent and witty sequel to “No You Girls,” as Kapranos plays on the chorus, singing, “I never wonder, how the girl feels.”
How you’ll feel when the song ends is like you just experienced an awesome soundtrack to a night out in London — and are ready for another go, er, listen. 3
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