plorentz's Full Review: You Could Have It So Much Better by Franz Ferdinan...
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MAKE GROOVE, NOT WAR
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People of the world, Franz Ferdinand feels your pain! They have seen the images of your afflictions broadcast on their television screens, whole communities devastated, whole subcultures wiped out of existence by tsunamic boredom. They understand that what you need right now is not another hand-out, another tax-deductible charitable donation, another photo-op embrace from a high-flying dilettante politician. Good, patient people of the world, Franz Ferdinand hears your cries. They understand the depth of your frustration better than any basement blogger in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin could ever articulate.
They understand that the rock establishment is old and bloated, inefficient and pathetic, and wholly unable to meet the needs of the groove-impoverished. They do hereby resolve that "YOU COULD HAVE IT SO MUCH BETTER". They implore you to empower yourself, to rise up and demand of their music what every listener has been guaranteed by the 45s of our Founding Fathers - Little Richard, The Kinks, The Sweet, The Smiths, and Pulp. They hold these truths to be self-evident: the inalienable right to a rhythm section that actually plays rhythms, a lead guitarist who can play licks that set your butt cheeks on fire, and a fearless, flamboyant frontman, unafraid to dance across the thin, wobbly highwire between obnoxious and delicious.
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KEEP YOUR LAWS OFF MY HIGH HAT
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Perhaps it is just the places where you have grown up, but the caring rock stars of Franz Ferdinand have witnessed the dance floors at your people's weddings and office parties. They have watched how hundreds have gone back to the remnants of watery drinks and sweaty, overwrought table gossip when a song by Gina G. comes on; and they have seen the multitudes fill the dance floor to AC/DC.
They have seen all this, and know it to be to the People's detriment. That dance music without guitars and a discernible image is boring; that guitar rock without a beat and a sense of style and whimsy is boring. The all pop must be tempered with a dash of post-nuclear nihilism; and that punk energy with neither direction nor purpose is pointless ejaculation. That every thrown-down 4/4 beat, every massive rock hook, every throbbing bass pulse is, by its very nature, political; that every verse of every song is a populist stump speech to the teeming masses. It must be quick. It must be snappy. It must get your attention and move you to action. To love. To hate. To want. To destroy. But, most of all, to dance.
With songs like their latest radio single "Do You Want To?", "The Fallen", and "Well That Was Easy", they seek to unite people both on the dancefloor and in the arena, to have fists pumping under the mirror balls, and bodies grooving in the mosh pits. In "Evil and a Heathen", they seek to unite the morning commute rock stars with the leather-jacketed smokers crowding the doors of skate shops. You can be all these things! And with Franz Ferdinand on our side, we will achieve our every goal! We will be all that we can be, together!
Nevertheless, the members of Franz Ferdinand, who care very much for your well being, good people of the world, understand that man and woman do not survive on energy and dance alone. That an occasional moment of self-reflection is good for the soul and the body, and gives the engaged listener a chance to check his or her pulse, to re-hydrate, and to take the necessary medications, and do the work of socialization and organization.
To this end, they offer songs like "Fade Together" and "Walk Away", which both remind us, in this age of fear and danger, that melody is not dead, and neither, for that matter, is irony. That a love song can be cruel and sweet at the same time; that romantic break-ups can be painful, but you still get to ogle his or her hot ass as he or she's walking out the door; but most of all, freedom-loving people of the world, that both Winston Churchill and Mao Tse-Tung have a place - together - on pop radio.
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FRANZ DON'T LET FRANZ VOTE FOR AMERICAN IDOL
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Good people of the world, Franz Ferdinand maintains that the currently accepted chasm between rock music and disco music is an artificial construct preserved and bolstered by the quasi-evangelistic-military-industrial complex; and that if uniforms are to be worn, they should be well-tailored to emphasize every human wearer's sexier aspects. And that if songs are to be uniform - as theirs are - (who said that?), they must be riveting, angular, authoritarian and daaaaazzling, baby!
Franz Ferdinand maintains that all pop music is a form of tyranny, and yet, it is up to the People to choose their dictator; that the People will ultimately devote themselves to the tyrant that makes the greatest demands on their hearts, minds, and feet. Freedom-lovers of the world, Franz Ferdinand wants to be your tyrant.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"You Could Have It So Much Better" by Franz Ferdinand
Domino / Epic Records
Released 10/4/05
Produced by Rick Costey and Franz Ferdinand
41 min.
SONGS: The Fallen - Do You Want To - This Boy - Walk Away - Evil and a Heathen - You're the Reason I'm Leaving - Eleanor Put Your Boots On - Well That Was Easy - What You Meant - I'm Your Villain - You Could Have It So Much Better - Fade Together - Outsiders
Product DetailsOriginal Title:You Could Have It So Much BetterCondition: NEWFormat: CDArtist: Franz FerdinandLanguage: EnglishGenre: Alternative RockMore at iNetVideo.com
Co-produced by Franz Ferdinand and Rich Costey, and recorded in both rural Scotland and at Avatar Studios in NYC, You Could Have It So Much Better fea...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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