- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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UncutFor all the influences, their voice is uniquely, gently mad. [Mar 2004, p.88]
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Franz Ferdinand's album arrives packed not just with fizzing guitars, disco-influenced drums and intriguing shifts in tempo, but also memorable songs, laden with hooklines and startling riffs.
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Alternative PressThe first great rock album of 2004. [May 2004, p.102]
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FilterRelentlessly sultry, with lush arrangements framed by slamming dance beats. [#9, p.102]
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Like all lasting records, Franz Ferdinand steps up to the plate and boldly bangs on the door to stardom. There's no consideration for what trends have just come and gone. There's no waffling or concessions for people who won't get it.
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It's the album you wish the Strokes would've made.
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The most musically rich, catchy, smartly written "new new wave" record since Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights.
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UrbUnlike their inspirations, they've ditched the Marxist polemics in favor of dance-driven ambiguous tales of fumbled romance. [Jun 2004, p.84]
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This is a terrifically exciting debut, imbued with a zest, energy and songwriting flair that warrants -- perhaps even commands -- some sort of attention.
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It marks the dawning of an era of British music that isn’t just for the casual petrol shop consumer, but stuff so important that you can give yourself to it completely. This is the album that’s going kick open the door for all the great British bands that’ll sweep through in their wake.
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Fearsomely post-post-punk, appealingly brazen, and ambitiously tight, they have indeed made The Album That Saved Indie.
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In a few tracks, you sense this band is still at the mercy of influences as it searches for its identity, but the best moments are wonderfully promising.
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It won't usher in a bold new era where boys are boys and bands play guitars, but there is more than enough here to chew over and enjoy.
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Q MagazineThe most ebullient British debut since Elastica. [Mar 2004, p.102]
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Franz Ferdinand reveals more depth and more new directions than their previous work suggested.
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BlenderThe band's debut struts and flirts like the best-looking guy at the bar. [Apr 2004, p.126]
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Remarkable for its excellence and not its originality.
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MojoThe songs feel like they're boiling over, there's so much heat under them. [Mar 2004, p.95]
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Insanely catchy and perfect for singing along with.
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No affectation, no pandering to fashion, just good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. How refreshing.
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However great the merits of their debut might be, one can’t help but feel that there’s something just a little too perfect about Franz Ferdinand, as though they had planned out hipster world-domination around a scientifically constructed chart of "what’s hot and what’s not."
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Quick, breezy and fun.
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Short of getting into a time portal and hurling yourself back to the late 70s, this is the closest you will get that sound in 2004.
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What sets Franz Ferdinand apart is their unapologetic adherence to the pop formula.
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Frantic and rhythmic Scotpop with many echoes of so-'90s Blur in the sardonic jabs at middle-class bromides.
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Where the album stumbles is in its inconsistency, with some rather uninteresting filler that doesn't do much but flesh out the album.
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Piece everything together and this is where your mouth might, quite rightly, start to drool a little.
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The A.V. ClubThe album is largely content to hover around the one note it plays so well. [24 Mar 2004]
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If you can distance yourself enough to judge Franz Ferdinand on its merits alone, it’s an impressive yet inconsistent debut record from a promising young band.
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Rolling StoneFor once, the inevitable U.K.-press hype is justified: Franz Ferdinand's debut draws from beloved Brit pop and post-punk bands without the usual plagiarism.
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Franz Ferdinand's music possesses an intriguing, passive-aggressive kind of wasted elegance that never quite pays off.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 297 out of 330
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Mixed: 16 out of 330
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Negative: 17 out of 330
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VitoVJan 29, 2009Perfect.
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Jul 18, 2012
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ShaneMar 13, 2004