[music] FRANZ FERDINAND - You Could Have It So Much Better

I have just one serious complaint: Franz Ferdinand don't know how to name songs. "This Boy", "Walk Away", "What You Meant", "Fade Together", "You're The Reason I'm Leaving"... Would you buy this record if that was all you had to go on? Fuck no.

Where I found FF's first album comforting for somewhat arcane reasons (they sound like a handful of bands from 25 years ago that I never expected to hear heirs of on the radio), the same elements make this record unnerving. Hearing the Monochrome Set turn angry or raucous, which is what about half of You Could Have It So Much Better amounts to, is like finding pictures of your grandparents drinking and smoking in the 1930s. I would support it wholeheartedly except that I'm not sure I can apprehend it wholemindedly.

The band must realize this-- the lyric that jumps out at you in track #1's first verse is "What's wrong with a little destruction?" 'Destruction' is a huge overstatement, but if that's what they think they're doing, it seems to have worked out okay. [Out October 4.]