Franz Ferdinand

Blood (Domino)

By Amanda Lee Anderson
Published: June 2nd, 2009 | 7:00am

On 2009's Tonight, Franz Ferdinand gave us the longer, more cerebral tracks than we're used to from the group, all of them themed around wild nights, mad dancing, and hangovers. The band moved out of their post-punk roots and toward a new paradigm, where electronic experimentation was king. Listening to this takes a greater attention span, or perhaps a little bit of the booze that comes with the late, ambiguous nights in smoky clubs that Tonight was designed to evoke. You know those nights. The ones when the vodka overtakes your affectation, modesty, and the social requirement that you stand vertically when in public places, and instead you end up dancing like a dervish and making out with boys whose last names you couldn't pronounce, even if you knew their first one. Tonight was tailor-made for remixes to inevitably pop up in clubs all over — and then the day after on Stereogum or HypeMachine.

Thankfully, we didn't have to wait too long, and Franz Ferdinand — aided by dub producer Dan Carey — did all the work for us. Blood features dub-style remixes of tracks we heard and loved on Tonight: all the dark-laden reverb and the Depeche Mode–esque keyboards grounded by the deep bass lines and confrontational staccato drums that conjure the mood of the tipsy, smudged-eyeliner and broken heel–soused nights that Tonight was meant to bring up.

Basing itself in the strength of the original tracks, but dripping with an energy that's slowed down, contained, and ready to pop at any moment, this re-imagining of Tonight seems like it might be more about what Carey can do electronically than about what Franz Ferdinand's members can do technically. But all parties involved in the record measure up. The power of the dub remixes piggyback on the strength of the original album's catchy hooks, deep, shoulder-shaking bass lines, and dance-worthy lyrics. In fact, since drum'n'bass is the hallmark of the kind of music that you typically hear in the clubs that Tonight is based on, the remixes on Blood do a better job of bringing that to life than the original songs do. And that's why you'll love it. Start dancing now.

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