Franz Ferdinand: The Human Fear

Lost in the swirl of early-2000s band euphoria was this weirdo Scottish rock band. Well, not lost per se, but a bit of an afterthought in The Strokes and Interpol of it all. Or even the short-lived mania of The Libertines for that matter. But here they are some twenty-one years after their debut still putting out albums filled with quirky dance post-punk slinkiness. Certainly not as urgent as their heyday or as critical to the scene as they used to be, but also not particularly afraid to lean into the Euro danciness of it all.

There is a certain sheen to Franz Ferdinand’s music that does put it somewhat apart from its peers. Not that their peers don’t employ some slick production, but FF really relishes it. Rolls around in it. Plays up their hyper-color 80s bouncy keys and walking basslines. Not quite in a Ric Ocasek way, but reminiscent of what you’d imagine he would make of, say, The The if he could have gotten ahold of them in his early Weezer era. There are a few too many times where this record sounds like The Escape Club’s “Wild, Wild West” or LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem,” but luckily that’s not the majority of the album. 

More so they’ve leaned into the piano, multi-tempo, maxilamist tunes of a Fun. or Koufax. That walking beat that feels almost vaudevillian in its tempo and tenor. It brought to mind “Say Say Say” at times for absolutely no reason. Other than the vaudeville scene in the song’s video, of course. Regardless, it’s not a bad album for a band that’s been pumping out music for a couple decades. It certainly sounds like them. And doesn’t embarrass itself (except on the track “Hooked”) though there are a couple clunkers that went for just too much bombast. I’m also pretty sure “Cats” is an interpolation of one of their own songs and “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” — though I’m not sure how one could prove that. It’s awkward. It’s not a terribly memorable album, ultimately, but it could probably an interesting artifact in 2025 if some kid happened to stumble upon it and worked back to Franz Ferdinand’s humble beginnings.