Where you’re listening to a song and go, “What the fuck was that? I wasn’t expecting to go there.” I still love doing it in songs and I always will, and I love it when I hear another artist doing that. I love setting up my expectations in one direction and then taking it somewhere else - those shifts of what I call the “What the fuck” moments. This may be an indication of what’s going to happen not just in the rest of that record, but in the rest of the creative arc of the history of Franz Ferdinand. It’s pointing in one direction and then the record takes a completely different turn, and that’s something I love doing with music. It starts off with this gentle acoustic guitar and a very soft voice, and that’s the only time you hear an acoustic guitar for the rest of the record. I think “Jacqueline” is the strongest opener because it’s a non sequitur. In the meantime, Kapranos was enthused to reminisce about the band for our Superlatives column, from the highs and lows to potential name alternatives. This year, they’re gearing up to tour extensively throughout Europe and are currently “making arrangements” to hit the road in America, too. While the band’s lost two of its original members (and gained three newbies), Kapranos has remained Franz Ferdinand’s frontman, guitarist, and primary songwriter since forming in 2002. To love Franz Ferdinand is to love the dance floor, whether that floor has a disco ball above it or is covered in sticky film. (As well as making us perk up about Russian constructivism with their accompanying visuals.) But if you move beyond 2004’s Franz Ferdinand and 2005’s You Could Have It So Much Better, you’d know that the Glasgowians were a lot more innovative beyond a blanket “rock” classification: 2009’s Tonight shifted them to an electronics-leaning era, a louche surprise that followed them into 2013’s Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action and 2018’s Always Ascending. Of course, you’re going to find their early triumphs “Take Me Out” and “Do You Want To” nestled in there, when the classic lineup of Kapranos, Bob Hardy, Paul Thomson, and Nick McCarthy were crafting some of the sexiest, suavest earworms in the genre at the time. “And that is absolutely one of the most frustrating feelings in the world.”įranz Ferdinand - indie lads, not archduke - is now two full decades into their history, enough so that Hits to the Head, a buoyant greatest-of album, will be released on March 11. The nerve! I just want to finally listen to “The Dark of the Matinée” as our sonic overlords intended, you know? “Being a big record hunter, especially on tour in America, I always hunt out records,” he responded with a laugh. When I signed onto a Zoom call with Alex Kapranos a few weeks ago, I joked how his band put me in a dispiriting mood the day prior: I had long been in pursuit of a clean Franz Ferdinand vinyl to enhance my collection, only to go through the five stages of grief when a local shop tried to pass off a scratched record as mint condition. Photo: Andy Willsher/Redferns/Getty Image “For me, the greatest feat is to experiment and pull something off and for the audience not to notice.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |