Franz Ferdinand: Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action

After a less-than-heated response to their third album (Tonight: Franz Ferdinand), the Glasgow art-rockers were feeling like a party that everyone had moved on from. Four years later, Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy, Bob Hardy and Paul Thompson hope to re-igniteFranz frenzy with an album that freewheels confidently from early '80s mutant disco to 1960s garage and back again. Almost-title track Right Thoughts mashes up Orange Juice with Alternative TV to provide their best decadent dance tune since Do You Want To. Love Illumination is even catchier, while Evil Eye ventures recklessly into B-horror movie territory, complete with eerie sci-fi synths. Fresh Strawberries surfs on a Beach Boys chorus; Bullet is a straight-up psych-rock riff-out pepperred with twangy New Order guitars. Add in great arch couplets straight from Kapranos's hipster dictionary (eg "I'm in love with a narcissist/I'm in love with my analyst" from Treason! Animals), and it's clear that Franz are firing on all pop cylinders again. franzferdinand.com
Download tracks: Bullet, Right Thoughts, Love Illumination, Fresh Strawberries