Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand were one of the biggest bands of 2004, demonstrating a geeky chic style that was both new and retro at the same time. In 2005 they are still huge, but are no longer the cool new thing and so a second album was always going to be difficult for them. Their eponymous debut sold by the vanload, but it was their catchy singles that got them noticed and kept them being played on ipods everywhere. I loved Take Me Out (still do!) and enjoyed subsequent releases almost as much, without even feeling they were indispensable - and that's a feeling very much carried forward to this new bunch of tunes. It is a decent set, but it already sounds old and collectively becomes hard to listen to from start to finish as an air of repetition creeps in. Walk Away is perhaps the stand-out tune waiting to be number one everywhere, and my favourite, although there are one or two growers on there too. As a whole it falls short of the sum of its parts and is a little flat compared to its predecessor. Is it because their style is so vivid they left themselves with nowhere to go in any substantial way? They may have been adored by hoards of art students everywhere, but I predict the fanbase will disappear as quickly as it arrived, and there won't be that many tears shed by me for that. 6/10 Kx