Once you do a commercial, you're off the artistic role call.

Reference to a Bill Hicks line. We rushed this week's show cause we all had Super Bowl plans, luckily I missed the BobDylan/whore commercial. The good news is he's past his relevance now, so the fact he decided to suck the devils cock only hurts my once fond memories.
Cus' I felt I skipped around in my review to condense for time, so I'll just post my write ups over the course of the week.
Franz Ferdinand- Tonight: Franz Ferdinand:

A follow up to '04's Self Titled, and the quick turn around sophomore release in '05 You Could Have It So Much Better. Leaving a nearly 4 year gap in between always builds up ? marks. Expectations can become cumbersome when reviewing, either you never live up to them when they're too high, or you are so pleasantly surprised it doesn't suck, a mediocre release comes off as an excellent outing.

After the 4 year drought of new material, the first things that are clear and apparent is all the standard FF fair has made a welcome return. Dance floor rock stomp, plainly suggestive innuendo, and a continuous string of pick-up line lyrics that are notch less brazen than Louis the XIV, are all still there. Then again I wasn't hoping "Ulysses" was the start of a concept album based upon the James Joyce classic here.

New to the affair is the addition of electro fuzz that layers several tracks (Tom, and Dan decribed it as a glam rock rock revival, my words, their thoughts). Recording with the Hot Chip producer makes for an updated sound that tweaks but doesn't break the mold.

This leads me to my main concern, lack of originality and ingenuity. My key expectation and concern coming into this album was that they would exploit the bend but don't break method of songwriting and not add enough new elements to make this a worthy follow up to their previous success.

Upon first listen I found myself biting my nails in fear they'd disappoint, as I found the few tracks very cookie cutter. The high point of the A-side being their single Ulysses (or Ulis-eez, as it's pronounced in Franz Ferdinese), which most prominently, yet briefly, shows off their attempt at a twist to their well established sound. Think dark disco beats. I found myself digging the sound, then it would stop. I really wanted to hear it explored further. I finally got my wish on the B-side, namely the sub 8 min Lucid dreams.

Final verdict: entertaining, but not overly impressive. I think fans who haven't moved on may really enjoy this. The biggest hurdle it had against it, is that in the 2 weeks I've been listening to this, I've also heard quite a few excellent albums that have proven more inspired. That being said, I have in fact listened to this album a bunch of times, and have really enjoyed it, despite the fact that there's not much depth to explore, it's still damn fun.