‘Franz Ferdinand’ by Franz Ferdinand

It’s been a while since I listened to this, and it was a pleasure to do so. After the somewhat mixed ‘You Could Have It So Much Better’ and the downright disappointing ‘Tonight’, it’s easy to forget how excellent Franz Ferdinand’s debut was, and still is.

Track after track is played out with accessible ease. There are highlights – ‘Take Me Out’, ‘Dark Of The Matinee’, ‘Darts Of Pleasure’ and so on, but the rest of the songs maintain the quality they set. Even the more forgettable, or disposable tracks – ‘Cheating On You’, ‘Tell Her Tonight’ – earn their place by being tremendous fun, and almost revelling in their underdog status. A great album.

‘Blood’ by Franz Ferdinand

When Franz Ferdinand released their third album, ‘Tonight’, at the beginning of the year, the special edition had an additional eight tracks on the end. These tracks were remixes of album tracks that carried the collective title ‘Blood’. Later in the year, ‘Blood’ was released on its own with an additional ninth track. My version is the first, and it was an accidental purchase in many ways. I bought ‘Tonight’ from ebay from an incredibly small sum, and happily, the special edition is what arrived through the post. To be honest, I’d paid it little attention before now. I was pretty disappointed in ‘Tonight’, so the idea of spending time with a collection of dub versions was relatively unappealing.

Happily, listening properly to this while coming to work on a cold dark morning was a more interesting experience than I thought it would be. It’s a bit samey, as you might expect, but there are some interesting production flourishes, and a good set of basslines. I doubt it would stand up to excessive repeated listening, but as the right kind of background music, it serves its purpose well.