Track Listing

1. Jacqueline
2. Tell Her Tonight
3. Take Me Out
4. The Dark Of The Matinee
5. Auf Achse
6. Cheating On You
7. This Fire
8. Darts Of Pleasure
9. Michael
10. Come On Home
11. 40 Ft

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3069 in Music
• Released on: 2004-02-09
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Touted as being the first great album of 2004, Franz Ferdinand's eponymous debut may be the secret weapon that'll kick-start the British fight against the White Strokes. Though they have a reputation as being bohemian art-obsessed dilettantes, they're at the vanguard of the Art Wave scene, and possess a fierce determination to change the face of modern music--their twin aims: to bring back cerebral rock that makes you want to dance, and to bring frontline music back home (witness exclusively British lyrics such as "I'm on BBC 2 now; telling Terry Wogan how I made it"). So what weapons do these four skinny lads engage to galvanise the UK music scene? Unsurprisingly, they roll out the big guns of Britpop past. "Cheating on You" bounces like early Blur; "Come on Home" soars like pre-OK Computer Radiohead; "Michael" flirts with Suede-esque sexual androgyny; and "Matinee" sleazes onto you like Pulp at their most lascivious.

Though they draw on the past, they do so wisely, injecting voguish angular 80s synth-pop with old-fashioned heart and soul. Their debut embraces the experimental, featuring time-signature changes and mid-song tempo drops, yet its solidity prevents it from consignment to the gratuitously quirky bin. If you feel that the Rapture lack a sense of drama and Interpol lack joy and energy, then Franz Ferdinand are the boys for you. Their stated ambition is to erase the Archduke Franz Ferdinand from the annals of history and replace him in the collective consciousness with themselves. Archduke who? --Paul Eisinger

CD Description
This is the debut album from Glasgow based four piece FranzFerdinand. The album, which is heavily influenced by bands such as Wire and Gang Of Four, sees the band mix early eighties new wave with modern indie rock to strikingly original effect, and resulted in them scooping the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. Includes the singles 'Darts Of Pleasure', 'Take Me Out', 'Dark Of The Matinee' and 'Michael'.

Customer Reviews

Perfect? No. But Much Better Than Most.
Ok, it's difficult to keep control amongst the hype but I'm going to try to do just that. Yes, the emergence of Franz Ferdinand is extremely exciting - in fact, I've not been this enthusiastic about the emergence of any band in the last five years (with the possible exception of The Coral).

And yes, this is a very good debut. Like all great music, it's influenced by the past but not in thrall to it, mixing past sounds to find a spin of its own. And, with Franz Ferdinand, it is the pop edge to the music that sets it apart from Hot, Hot Heat, Radio 4 etc.

For the first five songs, the album's practically flawless. "Jacqueline" is brilliant, catchy, anthemic and with a great slogan in the chorus. "Tell Her Tonight" is a great little song, the kind of thing which doesn't stand out from the rest but fits in nicely and complements the album - the musical equivalent of your friend who doesn't really say much but you know your entire group of mates wouldn't be the same without them.

"Take Me Out" everyone knows about but still sounds great, especially in the way that it seems to directly mock the Strokes and other bands of the garage revival by spending a minute playing the song how they would play it and then exploding it into something else entirely. "Dark Of The Matinee" is my favourite (and rumoured to be the next single), from it's great (almost classic rock) riff to its incredibly boucy, 2tone-esque chorus of escapism, to great lines such as "I time every journey to bump into you, accidentally". "Auf Achse" is a great moment of keyboard-led pop, moving yet somehow cold and sinister.

After that, there is a slight dip. "Cheating On You" is okay but not up to the previous standard while you start to wonder whether anyone would ever have noticed if "This Fire" didn't exist (and, if so, whether they'd be upset about the fact). It's not that "This Fire" is bad, so much as unremarkable, especially within this setting.

Fortunately, just when you are starting to despair the album springs to life with the catchy punk-pop of "Darts Of Pleasure" and album standout "Michael" which somehow manages to be dance, rock and pop simultaneously with a lyric of brilliant ambiguity.

The final two tracks on the album "Come On Home" and "40 '" are, to be honest, good album tracks but far from out-standing.

Essentially, whilst this album has its flaws, it fully deserves the five-star review for being an incredibly ambitious and exiciting album where any flaws tend to come from taking too many risks rather than not enough. Rather, like The Coral's debut, in that respect (although the two sound in no way similar)

Unfortunately (at least at present), the latter band have so far failed to live up to the promise of their debut and currently seem to be doomed to repeat their debut album, each time less risky, each time not quite as good.

Time will always tell, but one hopes Franz Ferdinand will not suffer the same fate.

Very Good Debut
I have just listened to the album for the first time in the last half an hour. I was very impressed. I loved "Take Me Out" and "Darts Of Pleasure" when I saw them on the music channels, but with all the hype, it was obviously going to be hard for Franz Ferdinand to meet expectations. They have met mine. There are a few weak tracks, (I didn't particularly like "Tell Her Tonight") and the lyrics could do with some work, (although I have only just heard it once, it may grow on me). The best track apart from the two singles, I would say is Matinee. It has the same sort of catchiness of Take Me Out, with a more complex tune.

PS. I would like to ask people not to review albums they haven't even heard, as the two bad reviewees obviously haven't. If you don't like the singles, don't tell us you hate the albums. Nobody likes everything, and we don't need people putting up unhelpful reviews. If you have bought (and listened to it) the album, and don't like it, then review it by all means.

Clever lyrics, tight rock music, upbeat, great for summer
Take Me Out and Matinee plus possibly Michael, three singles, are the best moments on this album, but the energy and metronomic synchopation that characterises FF and the whole album really gets you moving. It's a great driving album and your fingers tap the steering wheel. Live, they are also superb, but if you can't catch up with them then this is a great substitute.

It's worth it just for the lyrics of Matinee...