Franz Ferdinand (2004)

If you were hoping for some Throwback Thursday content, look elsewhere. If you consider this Throwback, then you must be considerably younger than I.

I accidentally stumbled on Franz Ferdinand in Doves-like manner, meaning I heard a track ("Dark of the Matinee") playing in the music section at the Borders I worked at and ended up putting my employee discount to work. It's an exceptionally good debut album; in fact the following album, You Could Have it So Much Better, was inevitably a disappointment, through no fault of the band other than that their debut was just too good.

For some reason 2005, I once snidely remarked, was the honorary eleventh year of the 1980's. Eighties nostalgia was one of the more regrettable aspects of the previous decade. As this album hit the year before, it isn't guilty of this, though the inspiration hits somewhere very close to 1980 and early new wave. Just as the post-grungers had a deep affinity for the early 1970's, this band has clearly studied the music of 35 years ago. It's danceable, but not overly synthetic.

I never got around to listening to the third or fourth albums, but the band has been kind enough to stream them on YouTube, so I'm doing a little catch-up work today. So far, so good three tracks into Tonight.