Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

2004: Tenth Anniversary Retrospective

(2004) Domino

 Rating: 4

Review Summery: It hasn't really held up, I am afraid. The freshest fruit goes rotten eventually.

2004: Retrospective

Released: 9th February 2004

Do you remember the first time you heard 'Take Me Out' and it was the freshest, most ingenious and down-right catchy thing you have ever heard on the radio? This was the future, the radio-man even declared it himself. He probably was just repeating what the internet was saying, and they themselves were only endlessly repeating the usual manufactured hype. The important thing, though, was that it felt real. The hype was real. This was it. This was everything music was building up to produce. This was salvation in a record. 

So we bought the album. We all bought the album. Even my grandfather bought it. And we liked it. We all really liked it. Single after single, Franz Ferdinand continued to show how they were the piper that we all needed to follow. We were one together. It was beautiful.

Then a few weeks later we realised that, 'Oh, wait; there is other music and it is just as good if not better.'. Yet they persisted in our minds. The honeymoon was over, and they survived respectively. The album continued to sell well and continued to have endless bedroom airtime, becoming a classic of the year. 

How does it hold up ten years later, though?

Hmm.

What were we thinking? Yes, it was catchy. Yes, it was quirky. Yes, it was replayable pop. But it was generally a little thin. Oh my, were the riffs reasonable. And golly, were the choruses easy to sing along with. Other than that, in retrospect, the album simply feels like simple, bland pop nonsense. Back in 2004 it seemed inspired, now it only feels tired. I am not really sure what to say. It seems quaint to consider how acclaimed 'Franz Ferdinand' was only ten years ago. Maybe it just goes to show how far we have come in ten years. 

Okay, I will concede. 'Take Me Out' remains a classic of the indie dancefloor, but maybe more for nostalgia than for pure quality. 'Michael' still seems to hold up better than its bedfellows, in retrospect it does stand-out as the song of the album. For the rest of the album, however, the songs do not seem to have dated that well. 'This Fire' and 'Dark Of The Matinee' very much feel like products of their time. The freshness has been lost and the hype has long since died. Take 'Auf Achse' for example; back in 2004 I would have lauded it was a brooding masterpiece. Now it bores me. Now it is revealed to me as the true 'filler' that it is. Hmm.

I remember adoring this album and counting down the days until the follow up was released. 

Weird how much difference a decade makes.