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CD of The Week

Week of 1/13/25

    Franz Ferdinand - The Human Fear (Domino)

    Veterans of the indie-alt-rock world for over two decades, Franz Ferdinand hadn’t released a new album in seven years, since 2018’s Always Ascending. However, the Scottish band has stayed busy, releasing a greatest hits collection with two new songs and touring quite a bit. Plus, singer Alex Kapranos got married and now has a child. Along the way, founding drummer, the always-precise Paul Thomson, decided to leave the lineup and was replaced by Aubrey Tait. The Human Fear, the sixth Franz Ferdinand album, is the first with the current, five-piece version of the group, as Kapranos and bassist Bob Hardy are the only original members still in the band.

    Despite all these changes, The Human Fear is unmistakably a Franz Ferdinand record. With Julian Corrie taking a bigger role in the band on keyboards and as a co-writer, some of the songs have more of a theatrical flourish, reminiscent of the FFS album that Franz and Sparks made. See current single “Night Or Day,” for example.

    Lead single “Audacious” is a pep talk from Kapranos to himself (or to you, the listener) built around a great buzzy guitar riff. The rollicking “The Doctor” is from the point of view of a patient who doesn’t want to leave the comfort of their hospital bed: “I've become accustomed / To this level of attention / I have nurses I can talk to / And thermometers to hold.” “Hooked” recalls the buzzing ‘00s pop of Britney Spears’ most EDM moments… Franz Ferdinand did cover “Womanizer,” after all, but the track appears to be a love song, perhaps to Kapranos’ child, which also provides us with the album title.

    “Build It Up” recalls the classic stately strut of early Franz Ferdinand, while “Tell Me I Should Stay” mixes in some Beach Boys sleigh bells and percussion into this slick jazzy tune. “Black Eyelashes” is the biggest swing on The Human Fear, a Greek folk music-influenced song where Kapranos delves into his family’s heritage and even sings some lyrics in Greek for the first time ever. The twangy “Cats” thankfully has nothing to do with the Jellicle Ball and “Bar Lonely” flips the famous Cheers theme song lyrics to describe a much more solitary watering hole.

    These different instrumental tweaks to the Franz Ferdinand template invigorate the band, while never straying too far from the basic dance-rock ethos Kapranos and company laid out 20+ years ago. They may be exploring The Human Fear but there’s nothing to be scared of, except getting back out on the dance floor. Which you can do when Franz Ferdinand return to The Fillmore in Philadelphia on Tuesday, April 8th.

    **Donate $15 or more to Y-Not Radio to receive a download of The Human Fear. Click here for details.
    Review by Joey O.

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