The Scottish post-punk group experiments through its seventh release.
This is the Scottish post-punk outfit’s first release in seven years and the first without founding member Paul Thompson handling the drums. Its willingness to experiment is on full display in The Human Fear.
Composed of Alex Kapranos(lead vocals, lead guitar, keys), Bob Hardy(bass, percussion), Julian Corrie(keys, lead guitar, backing vocals), Dino Bardot(rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Audrey Tait(drums, percussion), Franz Ferdinand have been the forefront of the 2000’s post-punk revival with their self-titled debut album, featuring the track Take Me Out, reached mainstream cultural influence. Subsequently, Franz Ferdinand has received five Grammy nominations and numerous other international award nominations and victories.
On their seventh LP, The Human Fear, Franz Ferdinand explores their dance rock themes more deeply in an 11-track run that includes traditional guitar and keyboard melodies as well as electronic loops and samples.
The infectious opening track, “Audacious,” introduces The Human Fear through a pulsating guitar groove as Kapranos vocal melody weaves through before repeatedly drifting into a rising and falling chorus. Additional standouts include the earwormy “Build It Up” and “Night and Day” while “Bar Lonely” carves a perfect balance between tension and release within each verse and chorus.
Notably, Franz Ferdinand offers the listener something completely experimental- whether working with alternative song structures or instrumentation, for each guitar and key-based track on The Human Fear. While such experimentation is critical in preventing creative plateaus and has led to creative directions that have subsequently altered the landscape of music and created subgenres in it themselves- the sonic creativity demonstrated in The Human Fear demonstrates Franz Ferdinand’s confidence in willingness to take risks and test the boundaries of their sound. Multiple tracks make heavy use of electronic elements such as the staccato countermelody crafted from vocal samples in “Everydaydreamer,” “Hooked,” which throws the listener into a dance club atmosphere, and “Black Eyelashes” brings Eastern instrumentation to the LP. At the same time, “Tell Me I Should Stay” begins with a minute of extended piano solo. Although these tracks display a band expanding their songwriting capacities, they feel out of place between songs such as “The Birds” and next to each other.
Musical experimentation has always been received as a shock; Radiohead’s departure from post-grunge rock to electronica in Kid A originally received critical reviews due to the album’s alienating sound, but it is now lauded for its innovation. Despite The Human Fear’s initial abrasiveness, Franz Ferdinand may only be ahead of their time.
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