Tracks

Franz Ferdinand: "This Boy"

(2005)

By Matt Stephens | 10 January 2008

You Could Have it So Much Betteris one of those records that sounds to have been written hastily in hotel rooms and stuffy tour buses, and one that, by and large, ends up suffering for its rushed conception. Throughout it, Franz almost sounds like they're trying to win you over with raw energy simply because about half the songs just aren't good enough to win you over on their own --- not to mention the needless dabbling in low-key, Friedburger-dedicated balladry.

The one moment where it all comes together happily is "This Boy," a glorious 141-second send-up that retains all the ass-shaking, sing-speaking, and sexual ambiguity that made their debut so infectious while playing around with the kind of sublime Weezeresque guitar hook (in a good way) the band has always seemed ready to bust out.

That hook opens the song, and lasts for about five seconds before the band transitions into one of its signature angular grooves, which is, cleverly, a very similar guitar line, only in a minor key and with a dancified rhythm. Alex Kapranos' vocals are shouty and largely indecipherable --- singing something like, "seems this boy is being ridiculed / too forward way too physical / it's time that I had another," while the band jerks and stutters tightly around him. The chorus starts out as a bit of a pop sing-along before quickly switching to a tuneless full-band shout-off (it sounds like
they're saying "I want a car," but without a lyric sheet it's anyone's guess).

The song's over and done with before you can pause to note the obvious similarities to "Michael," but you won't care anyway. All faults aside, no one since maybe Prince has made rock and roll homoerotica sound so infectiously decadent, and if Franz Ferdinand can remember that, maybe
they'll have better luck with album number three.