After a greatest hits compilation and tour and two recently new band members, the Glasgow art-rockers fronted by the sharp-witted Alex Kapranos return with renewed vim and vigour, with an unashamed air of going full-tilt on classic FF in their sound and style perky, pacy, hooky indie-pop. Bassist Bob Hardy is the only other remaining original member, so there’s something of a nostalgic harking back to the band’s noughties pomp as well as 2013’s album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action with the producer of that LP Mark Ralph, back at the controls. So this territory is really nothing new, but still enjoyable. with arresting first lines such as “Did you ever get the feeling that there's something come undone/ An unreeling in the seaming, the stitching gone” on opener Audacious. Kapranos portays a variety of variously flawed and troubled characters in the first-person, such as the man who simply doesn’t want to leave the hospital on the catchy Doctor (“I said to the doctor / I don't want to go home / I think you ought to / Leave this drip alone / I've become accustomed / To this level of attention / I have nurses I can talk to / And thermometers to hold”), to the paranoid obsessive on Hooked which has dark disco /electro-pop stomp. Of all of these new songs, standout Night Or Day really feels like classic Franz Ferdinand, with changes of pace and Kapranos performing in that actorly, arch style, but other highlights include Build It Up, Everydaydreamer, or the mid-life crisis depiction of Bar Lonely. The first half of the album is by far the stronger, but and the band have gone back to go forward, but it’s still welcome return to see them back with a bounce. Out on Domino Records.
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