Franz Ferdinand
“Tonight: Franz
Ferdinand”
(Domino)
When Scottish quartet Franz Ferdinand debuted in 2004 with the indelible “Take Me Out,” its mix of scratchy indie-rock guitar noise and danceable disco groove was a novelty on the primarily drab and sexless modern rock charts.
However, pretty soon bands such as The Killers and the Bravery were bringing a similar, slicker version of dance-rock to radio, leaving singer and guitarist Alex Kapranos and his bandmates in search of new sounds on “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand,” their third album.
The main sonic innovations here for Franz are the squelches, bleats and burbles of antique synths, which join their usual jangling guitar on most tracks. “Tonight” is a loose concept album about a night out, and the drugging and debauchery begin on the first track, “Ulysses,” with Kapranos seductively whispering, “Come on, let’s get high” right before the rest of the band crashes in with a monstrous keyboard-led chorus.
From there, Franz rips through a few potential singles in “Turn It On” and “No You Girls,” the latter matching earlier hits “Take Me Out” and “Do You Want To” for sheer addictiveness. The band shifts gears with the jaunty “Twilight Omens” and turns up the amps to rock out at the end of “What She Came For,” Kapranos and company breaking girls’ hearts and hitting up the clubs as the evening progresses.
The album and the night peak with the eight-minute-long “Lucid Dreams,” which begins as a typical Franz rocker and somehow morphs into a squelching synth-driven instrumental piece totally without precedent in the band’s catalog.
Franz doesn’t reinvent the wheel on “Tonight,” but its 12 songs represent another solid entry in an increasingly impressive discography. Now flip that record over and relive the whole night.
— TRAVIS GASS
• • •
Bruce Springsteen
and the E Street
Band
“Working on a Dream”
(Columbia)
Bruce Springsteen’s ample musical and lyrical gifts are on full display in his 24th release, “Working on a Dream.” For the most part, those gifts are supported by his E Street Band buddies, though some of the songs might have benefited from more spare production.
To his credit, Springsteen has resisted settling into a groove, sonically and thematically. When he took the big band sound as far as he could in the 1980s, the Boss cut the crew loose and morphed into a postmodern Woody Guthrie. Reuniting with the band in recent years has sounded a bit forced, and there’s evidence of that here.
The album’s opener, the eight-minute “Outlaw Pete,” is a baffling though engaging tall tale of a Western hero who spends three of his first six months in jail and robs banks in diapers. It would fit in the folk tradition, but here, it is given the full band treatment.
“Queen Of The Supermarket” is an oddball track, with Springsteen returning to the romantic persona of his early years. This time, the singer confesses his love for the bored bagger, but the affection doesn’t translate to the listener.
Elsewhere, Springsteen taps into a melodic, rollicking 1960s radio rock sound to great effect. The title track, “Life Itself,” “What Love Can Do” and “Tomorrow Never Knows,” whose opening is a ringer for CCR’s “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” are thoughtful and reflective, yet singalong-friendly.
And he even does a credible take as a blues howler on “Good Eye.”
The record closes with the powerful “The Wrestler,” Springsteen’s contribution to the film of the same name. It’s a return to the tough, road-weary troubadour sound of his post-E Street Band years.
“Working On A Dream” largely succeeds because it plays to Springsteen’s strengths, varied though they are.
— TOM GROENING
• • •
John Legend
“Evolver”
(Columbia)
This is one of those rare times when the title succinctly summarizes an album.
After all, John Legend doesn’t really have to worry about success in the music industry, not with two top-selling albums and five Grammys already in his career.
So instead the piano wizard has opted to evolve his sound. While the 13 songs on “Evolver” certainly fall under the wide umbrella of soul, there’s quite a bit of diversity on the album.
Being who he is allows Legend to pick with whom he wants to work. Showing up on “Evolver” are his mentor Kanye West, Andre 3000, will.i.am, Buju Bunton, Brandy and Estelle.
There are memorable hooks aplenty among these Legend-penned songs. The uptempo “Green Light” gets him out from behind the piano, but in general the album is overly heavy on ballads. Still, relationship songs are where he excels.
That’s not to say that he doesn’t have a social conscience, as is evident in the anthem “If You’re Out There” which he debuted during the Democratic National Convention.
With “Evolver,” Legend shows that he gets it. In the music industry, it’s evolve or perish. So John Legend should enjoy a long, long career.
— DALE MCGARRIGLE