'Always ascending / ascending'; This is what the title of Franz Ferdinand's fifth CD means, to an effect that makes it seem as if a tone keeps going up. You hear it - Typically Franz, always the smartest boy in the class - in the exuberant title song. The fact that 'a new Franz Ferdinand' is still seen as big news by the serious Dutch music press (cover story Oor, front page NRC) has mainly to do
… with the reputation of the self- from 2004. After made guitar music cool again in 2001, Franz Ferdinand made the girls want to dance to it again with indie disco hits like Take Me Out. The band from Glasgow, which has expanded to five, naturally deserves credits for this. But although they present themselves more than ever as 'dance band-with-guitars' on Always Ascending, they have to explain once again how exactly to dance to busy, often unnecessarily complex songs like Lazy Boy. A lazy reviewer would now happily conclude that Franz Ferdinand continues the ever-declining line qualitatively. (RME)more
