Art rock - Champagne-quaffing Christs and ready-salted crisps: Alex Gibbons enjoys Franz Ferdinand's new album
Music for girls to dance to. That was the aim of the art-rock band Franz Ferdinand when it formed at the end of 2001, according to its front man and guitarist, Alex Kapranos. The Glaswegian foursome were staging their own mini-rebellion against "that post-rock thing that seemed to be doing its damned hardest to avoid any bloody tune". They seemed to have the right idea. Their eponymous debut, released at the beginning of last year, went on to sell more than three million copies worldwide.
Kapranos, born to a Greek father and an English mother, spent his early years in Greece before moving to Glasgow to study English literature. He met Paul Thomson, originally a drummer (and part-time life model), when both played in another band, the Yummy Fur. The bassist Bob Hardy met Kapranos at a regular hangout, the 13th Note cafe in Glasgow. A dedicated artist who had moved from Bradford to study painting, Hardy was eventually persuaded to join the band. The final member of the quartet is the guitarist Nick McCarthy. Born in Blackpool, but brought up in Rosenheim, Bavaria, the ex-car-thief-cum-jazz musician made Kapranos's acquaintance at a party when he swiped the singer's bottle of vodka. When a fight seemed the likely outcome, Kapranos asked McCarthy if he could play the drums. He could not, but, rather than get thumped, said he could. Luckily, he was a classically trained pianist and double-bassist. He quickly mastered drums, then the guitar, and the band was formed.
Still without a name in 2002, they were forced to think of one in a hurry when the promoters of one of their gigs insisted that they needed something to put on the posters. After a fruitless brainstorming session, the band sat down to a spot of horse racing on the television. The winning horse was called "The Archduke", sparking a debate about archdukes in history. Eventually someone mentioned Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian archduke whose assassination precipitated the First World War. Like their music, it was esoteric and catchy. They had their name.
The title of the second album, You Could Have It So Much Better, is a reflection of the group's ethos: "to never feel satisfied, always to want to do something better". Taken from one of the album tracks, it is the antithesis of the former prime minister Harold Macmillan's patro-nising "You've never had it so good" slogan. Influenced by the 1970s punk-rock outfit the Buzzcocks, the songs retain the foot-stomping, driving riffs and funky basslines of the band's former output, but the new album has a darker edge and a more sophisticated sound: "music to make girls cry to", according to Kapranos. His lyrics are charmingly convoluted, bombarding the listener with riddles and wordplay describing a range of grotesque caricatures, intertwined with biblical and historical themes. The opening track on the album is about an acquaintance coming back as the reincarnation of Christ - just to quaff champagne and get laid.
Songs such as "Evil and a Heathen" and "I'm Your Villain" explore our desire to behave despicably, the latter retelling a story Kapranos was once told about a "romantic encounter" involving a packet of crisps and a can of lager: "I've got ready salted/Ready on your belly/If you want to have fun." It seems that the band has encountered some extremely undesirable characters on its travels in the past couple of years, but they all get their comeuppance here.
Franz Ferdinand has excelled again. Here is a band that not only makes us dance, it can also make us think.
You Could Have It So Much Better is released on 3 October, and the single "Do You Want To" on 19 September, both on Domino Records
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