Franz Ferdinand / Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (Domino/Epic)

Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand promised a more dance-friendly sound on their third studio release, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, and the band delivers.

Featuring scratchy, insistent beats and the distinctly awkward sound of a Polyvox synthesizer, Tonight gives the impression of listening to Franz Ferdinand in a grungy bowling alley-cum-dancehall. The smeared grooves and loops are nice party favors, especially for late-night grinding by the punch bowl. But it’s still very much a Franz Ferdinand album, and their trademark Scottish pop-punk never completely transcends itself. There are plenty of tracks great for a party mix, and Tonight will be a good friend on the elliptical machine, but the album as a whole doesn’t offer enough complexity and variation to keep coming back.
Erin Lyndal Martin
File under: Arctic Monkeys, Spoon, The Killers