Franz Ferdinand [CD]

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

If you believe what you read, Franz Ferdinand are Glasgow's answer to The Strokes. Only they don't really sound like The Strokes. Or look like them. Or have much in common with them at all. It's all a bit confusing, really. Surely this, their eponymous debut album, can't live up to comparisons with Is This It? Or can it?

Well...yes, frankly. Glasgow's next big things have come up with a cracking debut, taking elements from all over the place. Funky guitar playing that would make Nile Rodgers proud; wonderful harmonised vocals; a simple-but-effective drum sound; sexy, throbbing basslines; and a keyboard sound so cheesy that you could bait a mousetrap with it. And it works. I'm not much of a dancer, but this album makes me want to get up and do a little jig - all hips, elbows and twitchy head movements. A Jarvis Cocker impersonation, if you like...

There's not a bad track on the album, so trying to pick standout tracks is more or less arbitrary. My current favourites are "The Dark Of The Matinee" for its strange tale of art-school passion, and the fact that it name-checks Terry Wogan (!). And "Come on Home" because it's got great lyrics and a wonderfully lame keyboard sound. (An hour ago my favourites were "Michael" and "Tell Her Tonight" - give me another hour and I'll have changed my mind again, I'm sure...)

At only 38 minutes long Franz Ferdinand may not be a particularly long album, but it is a masterpiece of funky, punky, suave cool from the first track to the last. Alex Kapranos and co. have got the formula just right. A pinch of this and a smattering of that from here, there and everywhere. "Come on Home" and "Auf Acshe" could be distantly related to Blondie's "Atomic" while "Tell Her Tonight" sounds a bit like "Boogie Nights" (in a good way). The whole album sounds sort of familiar. Despite this, it's always unmistakably Franz Ferdinand. But that's usually the way with great albums isn't it? --Simon Fernand

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FRANZ FERDINAND Franz Ferdinand (2004 UK 11-track CD album including the singles Darts Of Pleasure Take Me Out Matinee & Michael picture sleeve WIGCD136)