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Artist: Franz Ferdinand
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Title: Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
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Label: Domino
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Genre: Indie
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Bitrate: 202kbit av.
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Time: 00:42:38
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Size: 66.27 mb
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Rip Date: 2009-01-10
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Str Date: 2009-01-26
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1. Ulysses 3:11
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2. Turn It On 2:20
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3. No You Girls 3:41
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4. Twilight Omens 2:29
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5. Send Him Away 2:59
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6. Live Alone 3:29
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7. Bite Hard 3:26
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8. What She Came For 3:52
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9. Can't Stop Feeling 3:02
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10. Lucid Dreams 7:56
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11. Dream Again 3:18
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12. Katherine Kiss Me 2:55
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Release Notes:
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Naming themselves after the archduke whose assassination
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sparked the First World War, the band mix grandeur and
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pretension with a shrewd pop touch. Their self-titled debut
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album didn't so much light up the charts as turn the sales
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book into an inferno, while follow-up 'You Could Have It So
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Much Better' came equipped with a stunning arsenal of singles.
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But then the trail goes cold. The band retreat to Glasgow,
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with the Franz Ferdinand citadel surrounded by the cloud of
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rumour as a thousand lesser acts go screaming up the charts
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only to fall back in a blaze of mediocrity.
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Sitting idle since 2005, 'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand' is an
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album long-delayed. Sessions with the slick pop machine
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Xenomania ended badly, forcing the group to spend longer on
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the album than they anticipated. During the prolonged
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downtime, the band began exploring new influences, adding
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electro, Afrobeat and æ60s garage sounds to the studio
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jukebox.
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Opening track and comeback single 'Ulysses' encapsulates the
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drama of the band's return. Franz Ferdinand emerge from their
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hiatus with a bass-heavy intro, before Alex Kaprano's familiar
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voice hisses and seethes from the speakers. As dancefloor
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friendly as a handshake with Erol Alkan, it name-checks James
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Joyce's groundbreaking novel amid the refrain, 'I found a new
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way'. At times gloriously over the top, it never loses its
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shrewd pop vision ending in a maelstrom of antique synths
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being pushed into the 21st Century.
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This confusing blend of past and present runs through the
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throbbing veins of 'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand'. The gentle
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African skank of 'Send Him Away' rumbles along nicely, almost
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staining the coffee table with its polite Afrobeat mannerisms.
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But suddenly the band erupts into a frenetic Fela Kuti-style
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breakdown - like a circuit pushed to overloading, 'Send Him
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Away' sparks and spasms into life.
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Shimmering disco scenery dominates the landscape of this
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album. Producer Dan Carey recalls the adventurous spirit of
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the Moroder era, as the band battle creaking antique synths to
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find their true voice. 'Twilight Omens' opens with an almost
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Daft Punk-inspired riff, before leaping headlong into groovy
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Roxy Music-style rhythm. This is an album that right from its
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title down to the last notes is bathed in moonlight, its skin
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bleached with the glitter of the disco ball.
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The album's centrepiece is 'Lucid Dreams', possibly the most
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stunning and ambitious recording the band have put their names
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to. The vocals are hidden in the mix, allowing the runaway
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momentum of the song to gallop ahead of Kapranos. A triumph of
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Darey's production skills, 'Lucid Dreams' threatens to spin
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off in almost a dozen different directions, held together by
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the rhythmic gravity of Paul Thomson's insistent drum beats.
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It runs for an epic seven minutes, shattering Franz
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Ferdinand's pop framework into a thousand electronic
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fragments.
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Refining and transcending their familiar pop formula,
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'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand' is the band's most complete work to
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date. Worth the wait, and in all honesty better than we could
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ever have hoped for.
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