Album Review: Franz Ferdinand – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
3 min read
It’s an unwritten rule in music that the longer you take to put out a new record, the better it has to be. Franz Ferdinand haven’t released an album since early 2009, meaning the new one had to be good enough to compensate for four silent years. Lucky for them, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action does just that.
Picking up from where they left off, the new album is as bouncy, contagious and indie as their previous efforts. With that familiar Ferdinand-unique sound recreated again in the new release, it’s hard to believe that their debut self-titled album is almost 10 years old. Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action is full of ridiculously catchy beats and the kind of musical maturity you’d expect from the band who took the world by storm with their massive, infuriatingly catchy hit Take Me Out in 2004 and backed it up with the equally impressive Do You Want To and No You Girls in later years.
The time away seems to have done wonders for the boys as they return with 10 polished new tracks – any of which suited for huge mainstream success. Beginning with Right Action, it’s clear that Franz Ferdinand haven’t missed a beat, bringing back their undying enthusiasm and tantalising funky rhythm which is impossible to resist.
Evil Eye proves Franz didn’t fluke the first track, continuing to impress with more dance-friendly beats and sharp guitar hooks including a tribute to Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust bass line. If there is a band who can string together melodies with as much rhythm and appeal as Franz Ferdinand, I haven’t discovered them yet. Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action will have you dancing the whole way through, just as you’d expect from a Franz Ferdinand record.
Bullet is a short and sharp track with a zippy bass line and ironic lyrics as Alex Kapranos claims that he will “Never get your bullet out of my head now, baby/Never get your bullet out of my mind” on a song that will be hard to get out of your head, or out of your mind.
Stand on the Horizon and The Universe Expanded show that the Glasgow rockers are more than one-trick ponies, offering a slower arrangement than their characteristic hyper hits. With that being said, however, these two are still funky and infectious, slowed down by Alex Kapranos’ vocals and more subdued beats.
Appropriately enough for an album closer, the final track is called Goodbye Lovers and Friends, a rhythmic mid-tempo number where Kapranos explains “I don’t play pop music/you know I hate pop music” and bids “Goodbye lovers and friends/it’s so sad to leave you” … “But this really is the end”. Is this the Franz Ferdinand way of saying they’re taking another four year drought? Probably not. But if they promise to return with an album equally as good next time, I’m sure there wouldn’t be too many complaints.
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