UNITED KINGDOM: Franz Ferdinand play record store gig and talk about their new synth-based album

Record ID: 386116

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Franz Ferdinand play record store gig and talk about their new synth-based album
  • Date: 27th January 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF FRANZ FERDINAND PERFORMING "BITE HARD"
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVACXQGZ2ITQM3JEPC3L6EPYGQYP
  • Story Text: Glasgow-based band Franz Ferdinand's new record "Tonight" hits the shelves on Monday (January 26) to mixed reviews of what the band agrees is a shift towards synthesizers and dance pop.

    "There's a little bit more synthesizer, a little bit more base, but it's really Franz Ferdinand," lead singer Alex Kapranos told Reuters Television before a gig featuring the new music at a record store in central London.

    "It's always good to experiment, always good to try different things because if you change the environment that you're in, it makes you reconsider what you're recreating yourself. It's always good to find inspiration behind you," he added.
    Critics agree that, while not a total departure from the band's signature sound, Tonight is more synth-heavy than their first two albums -- 2004's "Franz Ferdinand" and the 2005 followup "You Could Have It So Much Better".
    But is this the end of indie music? The band protest -- no.

    "I remember reading this story about the Beatles being rejected by Gecko Recordings in 1963 because they were told that guitar groups were over.
    If people were saying guitar groups were over in 1963 and they weren't and they aren't now. Of course you're going to have some opinionated tastemakers saying 'Gosh I heard a girl with a synthesizer the other day that means there's never going to be another guitar group again. I like guitars, I like synthesizers too. I think what's going to survive is good music," said Kapranos.
    He said Tonight was not written as a concept album, but was based around a single idea - a night out.
    Sales of Tonight, the first big British album release of the year on the independent Domino label, will give music executives an early taste of what is in store.
    Album sales fell 3.2 percent in 2008, a smaller than expected decline and stronger than the double-digit drop in the key U.S. market last year.
    Singles, boosted by digital downloads, jumped 33 percent in Britain.
    Kapranos said the music industry tended to go through cycles where singles or albums were in the ascendancy.

    "At the moment it seems that the single is a very popular idea, but I like to think of bands creating albums, a collection of songs, reflecting where they are artistically ... and being able to present a more complete piece of work than just a one-off song."
    Tonight kicks off a year in which the industry's main hopes will lie with blockbuster releases like Bruce Springsteen's "Working on a Dream", U2's "No Line on the Horizon", 50 Cent ("Before I Self Destruct") and Eminem ("Relapse").
    In Britain, Lily Allen releases her second album "It's Not Me, It's You" and Robbie Williams, formerly of Take That, is expected to complete his long-delayed record.
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