“If you don’t like
this album, you are either a lobotomized eunuch or a British restaurant
critic”. Indeed. It would be hard to improve on Luke Haines’ review of this
album, so let’s just say FFS (for fuck’s sake or, alternatively, Franz
Ferdinand + Sparks) have released one hell of a pop record.
Catchy and inventive,
like all things Sparks – and, of course, completely insane. They even managed
to get the best out of Alex Kapranos, whose melodies here are reminiscent of
whatever it was that he did so effortlessly back in 2004 and 2005. FFS is eccentric pop music with deliciously quirky lyrics. They do try to appear normal and semi-serious
in a couple of places, but I guess that’s where Franz Ferdinand came in. Not every song here is a classic, granted, as “Things I Won’t Get” is a little low on musical imagination
and the chorus of “Save Me From Myself” is way too straight-faced for Mael
brothers – but even those beat your best.
This is a great
album. They blend together so well, these people, it pains me to say that
collaborations are not in fact completely worthless.
