WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

TRACKLIST: Audacious; Everydaydreamer; The Doctor; Hooked; Build It Up; Night Or Day; Tell Me I Should Stay; Cats; Black Eyelashes; Bar Lonely; The Birds

Franz Ferdinand only include 2 of its original line-up in the now quintet which may give a clue why this 6th album is a dramatic return to form.

• Read on for reasons including how Hooked could be Yello and Kraftwerk go Eurovision

We last saw them live at Alexandra Palace in London around the time of the release of their favourite single of ours the bubblegum electropop of Do You Want To? around 2005 and we felt the size of the venue dwarfed the merits of their combined back catalogue that far.

2 decades on and this year’s tour to promote this album already includes 2 sold-out dates at 02 Shepherds Bush Empire in London and 1 at Razzmatazz 1 in Barcelona.

We were reminded of the band’s biggest hit Take Me Out in an unlikely setting during a play at the Bush Theatre late last year to underscore a riotous night of indie clubbing.

Opening track Audacious starts with a verbal introduction to ‘riff 1’ and it’s similar to the band’s heyday but different enough to remind that this is the 1st studio album with drummer Audrey Tait who replaced original member Paul Thomson in 2021.

Best track is Hooked which is brief and quirky electronic pop that reminds of something Yello or Kraftwerk would do perhaps at Eurovision while also suggesting of the pop hooks of the aforementioned Do You Want To?

Hooked also makes reference to the album title and this is very much a collection of songs that revolve around a theme of ‘searching for the thrill of being human via fears’ according to frontman Alex Kapranos.

It’s brief at 11 tracks but subjects include ‘fear of isolation, fear of leaving an institution, fear of leaving or staying in a relationship’.

Below is the video for Night Or Day which is heavy on the piano, memorably includes the word ‘irascible’, reminds of a slowed-down Take Me Out and flirts with the more palatable elements of prog rock and ELO that expands on the obvious debt to Wire of their often simple trademark clipped guitar sound.

Most interesting is later track Tell Me I Should Stay which starts with noodling piano, before referencing lighting ‘a bouije candle’, deploying crashing 60s-influenced kettle drums and taking flight into something almost Bay City Rollers-ish.

Produced by Mark Ralph, who previously served as a mixer and recording engineer on the band’s 4th studio album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action in 2013, this is audacious, obviously, but also lyrically fascinating, musically playful and arguably the band’s best ever album.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Franz Ferdinand Tickets
• Have you seen a Franz Ferdinand show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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