The Return Of Franz Ferdinand

2004’s Hottest New Band Breaks The Sophomore Slump

Mark Williams
Music Editor

Cold, calculating and too clever by half: that’s what some people say about Franz Ferdinand. Where’s the passion, the sweat, the rock n’ roll? Oh, who cares? Just 18 months after their debut made them 2004’s most prominent band, here comes the follow-up, You Could Have It So Much Better — a record that’s miles above the quickie sophomore follow-ups that left limping the careers of golden boy bands like The Strokes, The Vines and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Instead, this new album is a bigger record, more complicated — but with a darkly seductive current that pulls you under for good.

The biggest change is in the actual making of the record: earlier this year, the band admitted to being dissatisfied with the abrupt, bare sound of their debut, so they brought in producer Rich Costey, best known for working with L.A. rockers The Mars Volta; the resulting album radically broadens the band’s musical landscape, which makes this album much more difficult to get into than the first album because the tunes seem overwhelmed by all the extra decoration.

You need to keep listening before Franz Ferdinand’s strongest-ever songs snap suddenly into focus: the fiendishly clever “Do You Want To”; the melancholy “Walk Away”; the wistful “Fade Together”; the romantic “Eleanor Put Your Boots On.” Actually, the biggest departures from the first album, they’re just anthemic enough to grab up fans of The Killers (2004’s other most-hyped new band) but with enough unexpected twists and turns to satisfy the art-rock hardcore.

Despite the band joking that this album was “music for girls to cry to”, You Could Have It So Much Better still has at least one foot on the dance floor. “The Outsiders” sounds like a lost track by 80’s new wavers Blondie, while “I’m Your Villain” achieves the same spacey funk David Bowie went for in the mid to late 70’s; then there’s the frantic punk of “This Boy” and the gothic Glasgow sound of “Evil And A Heathen” and “You’re The Reason I’m Leaving.”

Oh, and have no fear — Franz Ferdinand can definitely rock out: the first bars of the album’s opener, “The Fallen,” pack a British-style rock n’ roll wallop while the title track is a new generation’s “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” — both in its biting guitar attack and in its lyrics, which update Mick Jagger watching a cigarette commercial 40 years ago: “Grinning goon/On my TV screen/Telling us that/It’s alright because/She wears this and/He said that and/If you get some of these/It’ll all be alright.” Like the rest of the album, it’s a call to action, not to simply sit back and accept what life is giving you, but to get out there, create and be fantastic. Come to think of it, Franz Ferdinand’s greatest passion may just be the creative process itself…

BISCOTTI & BLUEGRASS: Come out on Sunday for a special night of entertainment at the non-profit Millbend Coffee House (1370 N. Millbend, The Woodlands, inside the Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Church) with Still On The Hill — a duo straight from the Ozarks whose “performance incorporates kaleidoscopic color and constant movement. Bright clothing and hats, long flowing hair, dancing feet — some with shoes, some without — bobbing fiddle and weaving guitar engage the audience, drawing them into the excitement” playing an exciting mix of “bluegrass, folk, jazz, classical, jug band and blues.” Call 936-273-0610 or 283-350-3052 for reservations.
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