Artist: Franz Ferdinand
Title: Hits To The Head
Genre: Alt-Rock / Pop
Release Date: 11th March 2022
Label: Domino Recording Company
Album Review
Ah! The Greatest Hits album! Beloved of bands from the eighties who managed a couple of monster biggies and then followed up with a whole load of hope, padding and bilge. Or even more beloved of a record company about to drop a band, fulfilling a contract and squeezing a dying breath from an almost forgotten corpse. But, as singer Alex Kapranos rightly points out, often the entry point for many a young music buff, is ‘The Best Of…’, lurking in the recesses of a parent’s record collection. And so, if somehow you have managed to miss the jerky, quirky, intelligent art-rock glitz of FRANZ FERDINAND, here’s the front door, complete with two new songs just to prove they’ve still got it.
The early singles have all the fizz and sparkle that would be refined and sharpened as the FRANZ FERDINAND story unfurled - an English THE STROKES, but with cooler imagery, frequently borrowing from Russian avant-garde. ‘Take Me Out’ still sounds as timeless as when it first stuttered and spluttered into the ears of every sentient being on the planet. ‘Michael’ manages to be punk and new-wave and reggae all at once, ‘Do You Want To’ an omniscient lager-boy chant that’s as annoying as it is charming, and the two and a bit minute ramshackle joyfulness of ‘The Fallen’. In fact, as this album mad-dances across your afternoon, like a loveable drunk uncle at a wedding, it’s amazing not only at how many of these songs you recognise, but how many have stood up to so many repeated plays.
Perhaps it’s due in part to the fidgety nature of the whole… melody tossed about with ease, a deliberately amateurish feel to the playing at times that actually shows a real skill, and always the clever, wry, but warmly human lyrics. There’s nothing snide or superior here, despite classical references and myriad observations of modern life. There’s also the irresistible funkiness of ‘Stand On The Horizon’ and ‘No You Girls’, which channels a bit of IAN DURY through BLUR with an ease that’s ridiculous. New offering ‘Billy Goodbye’ hustles and bustles around busily and is as good as anything the band have previously released, making it clear ‘Hits To The Head’ is merely a pause, and not a full stop.
FRANZ FERDINAND have probably released this album simply because they can. It doesn’t serve any purpose really other than to say “look at what I’ve done” - but when you’ve produced some of the most glittering, awkward, odd and beautiful art-rock singles of the last 20 years, then why not. Why not indeed.
Tracklist
01. Darts Of Pleasure
02. Take Me Out
03. The Dark Of The Matinee
04. Michael
05. This Fire
06. Do You Want To
07. Walk Away
08. The Fallen
09. Outsiders
10. Lucid Dreams
11. Ulysses
12. No You Girls
13. Right Action
14. Evil Eye
15. Love Illumination
16. Stand On The Horizon
17. Always Ascending
18. Glimpse Of Love
19. Curious
20. Billy Goodbye
Line-up
Current line-up is:
Alex Kapranos – Vocals / Guitar
Bob Hardy – Bass / Backing Vocals
Dino Bardot – Guitar / Backing Vocals
Julian Corrie – Keyboards / Guitar / Backing Vocals
Audrey Tait – Drums
Website
https://franzferdinand.com / https://www.facebook.com/officialfranzferdinand
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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