FRANZ FERDINAND - TWILIGHT OMENS

















I would make a very poor joke about how they should have released this at the start of last year to warn us of the onslaught of shite vampire novels/films, but I can't really think of a way to make it work. Anywho, another month, another Franz leak. In terms of leakiness they're getting worse than the bottom three of the Premier League. This new album track starts off like the electrofest we've been promised with "Tonight:..." and immediately sounds like an old lost Bowie song (or Roxy Music as my uncle keeps saying, I wouldn't know being honest). In comparison to other album tracks like "Ulysses", "Lucid Dreams" and "What She Came For", it isn't as immediate and seems caught in the middle of their indie rock sound and their electro direction, neither one or the other. It could be a grower, so watch this space...
7.5/10

Good Books - Manifesto

Yet another band to change their name recently (after Panic At The Disco dropped the "!" and The Muslims opted for the much-less contreversy-courting The Soft Pack), Good Books release their yet-to-be-titled second album on the 4th of May next year. Feautring on the album will be "Manifesto", a track which has magically found its way onto teh internetz. GBs first album was full of angular, bleepy math-pop (for want of a better description) but with some big, big choruses which hinted at a lot of potential and a move away from a new Foals.

"Manifesto" begins with the kind of strings you'd expect to hear James Morrison rasping over, but then suddenly bursts into a wall of synth, funky drums and impassioned vocals. To sound like NME, it's like Blaine Harrison from Myserty Jets singing with Glasvegas with Tony Allen on drums. Now back to the actual song. As it progresses, "Manifesto" shows more and more links to the type of melancholy anthemia we've come to expect from the likes of Arcade Fire and British Sea Power recently. If they continue down this route, then they certainly could follow those two into the indie big leagues.

7/10