Music Review: Franz Ferdinand - Tonight

I'll start this off with a confession: I play an awful lot of Tetris, it helps me relax. In fact any computer game where you have to stack up blocks or balls or rings. I adore them all. So what's all this got to do with Franz Ferdinand? Not much really; one of their songs follows the pattern of the Guillemots and the Sister Sisters by including some fiddly computer game music buried in the background; I listen and suddenly I see blocks falling down. I may have a problem.

'Fiddly'; that's the first half of this album alright. Fiddly and trying too hard just like Lincoln Cathedral. The tracks are top heavy with flourishing touches, some which work, some unfortunately don't. The ones that don't tend to take off on beat-morphing tangents; you just have to sit there wishing the song ended back when you were enjoying it . That said the majority of songs on the new album possess the killer rhythms you'd expect: 'Ulysses' and 'What She Came For' are cases in point there. Almost every track feels like it could stand alone as a single.

Franz Ferdinand have pushed themselves, yet sometimes there are just too many layers and songs take so many unexpected twists (especially at the start of the album) that they become tedious, leaving Kapranos's strained voice to quaver over repetitive lyrics. The songs which work best tend to be true to form. Happily there's a cluster of them later on so fans won't be disappointed (in particular I rather like the gentle 'Katherine Kiss Me' it's a nice counterpart to the dance floor ready 'No You Girls').

Generally the band strives for originality and innovation, trying to stay one step ahead, but the culmination of this push results in electronic blundering, acid stylings, the odd Latin beat and strange musical pairings that at times fail to provide a fulfilling listening experience. There's so much crammed into some tracks, like 'Send Him Away' or 'Live Alone' (including computer game sounding music) yet you're left with a hollow construction - songs which are in fact chocolate bunnies. It's a shame; you get the impression that the album might have been a bit of diamond in the rough, as it is you'll get the best out of it when it's played on a night out.

You could do worse: you'll hear and enjoy some things on the radio and down the discos, but this doesn't flow together as an album. As for the band - must try harder to do less: 7/10