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Franz Ferdinand – Blood

As far as dance/dub/remix albums go, Blood is a fine record which consists of dubs and remixes from their latest full release Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, but like most remix albums one questions the point of releasing something that isn’t really suited for Joe Commuter driving home during rush hour and is more suited for bumping and grinding on a Saturday night…as far as the music, well, it’s exactly what you would expect a remixed Franz Ferdinand album to sound like – take that as you will.
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Tags: dan carey, domino records, dub, franz ferdinand, remix

Various Artists – War Child Presents Heroes

War Child’s newest compilation – benefiting children affected by war – is structured around a premise that legendary artists pick modern day artists to cover their classics: Beck does a rousing, bluesy rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”, Lily Allen does a soft and ironically sweet cover of The Clash’s “Paper Planes”-sampled “Straight to Hell”,  Hot Chip dance-pops up Joy Division’s “Transmission, and TV on the Radio manages to make the first good cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” that this reviewer has ever heard; despite a few low points, (The Kinks clearly picked The Kooks to cover “Victoria” because of the similar names, and the results are quite boring, and Peaches’ can’t hold a candle to the badassness of Iggy Pop’s “Search and Destroy”) the whole thing paints a more promising portrait of the state of popular music then you’re likely to get from most sources and besides, once again, it’s all for a good cause so you should buy it anyway.

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Tags: adam cohen, beck, blondie, bob dylan, brian wilson, bruce springsteen, compilations, david bowie, duffy, elbow, elvis costello, estelle, franz ferdinand, hot chip, iggy pop, joy division, leonard cohen, lily allen, paul mccartney, peaches, roxy music, rufus wainwright, scissor sisters, stevie wonder, the clash, the hold steady, the kinks, the kooks, the like, the ramones, the stooges, tv on the radio, u2, war child, yeah yeah yeahs

Franz Ferdinand – Tonight

It was reported that Franz Ferdinand’s third album Tonight would showcase influences by dub, Jamaican, and reggae…good luck finding it; Tonight features the same 80s throwback dance-infused, punchy synth rock as their eponymous debut or You Could Have It So Much Better, although unlike with their contemporaries The Killers it avoids becoming stale thanks to their avoidance of emo whininess and an infectious level of danceability…the biggest departure is the 7+ minute experimental “Lucid Dreams” which is not more than an offering for future remixing but still manages to not be annoying.
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Tags: epic, franz ferdinand