Beat down

Of the brief dance-rock explosion in the first half of this decade, Franz Ferdinand’s 2004 debut was the movement’s apex.

Beyond the much-mentioned “angular guitars,” Franz demonstrated far greater sophistication and consistency than their contemporaries: taking their songs in unexpected directions – for example, the sudden disco stomp in the middle of “Take Me Out” – and telling stories of dark, desperate, intelligent, sexually-ambiguous hedonism.

The band’s 2005 followup, “You Could Have It So Much Better,” was not as earth-shattering, but was nevertheless quite good – exploring some new directions and dodging the sophomore-album curse that killed much of the movement.

Thus, when they returned with “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand” to a music scene so desperate for rump-shaking it had embraced the dishwater-dull Hercules and Love Affair, it felt like a second coming. Sadly, this is not the case for two reasons.

First, in “Tonight,” Franz opted to follow rather than lead. Fearing that their own sound had become dated, they sought to adopt the synth-heavy style of bands on the Death From Above record label. In this, they do a decent job – certainly better than Hercules – but it’s nothing compared to the brilliance of DFA’s star act, LCD Soundsystem.

Second, “Tonight” loosely adheres to the concept of depicting a night on the town – from setting out to dance club to morning after.

But much like the real thing, the album is best at the beginning; it’s packed with anticipation and ultimately disappointing in the end. Nothing ever quite lives up to the promise of opening track, “Ulysses,” but starting with the 10th song “Lucid Dreams,” things wind down to an exhausted gasp.

In summary, “Tonight” is a decent listen, but as Franz has demonstrated in the past: “You could have it so much better.”