Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

For once you can believe the hype. This doesn't happen a lot in the music business as A&R people 'big-up' their recent charges. People in radioland soak it up and regurgitate. Must be the free records. Ahem.

Anyway the debut from Franz Ferdinand was worth every word of publicity, every column inch and every second of radio play. Taking element of punk, indie-guitar and pop to create an angular masterpiece. Some have compared it to early Talking Heads and who am I to argue. A well as the New York influence there are also more angular anglo influences at play; Blur? Duran Duran? Art rock it maybe but there's artistry in tracks such as 'Take Me Out' in particular the rhythm change about 55 seconds in.

Whilst we are on the subject of time, at just under 39 minutes it's not a long record but it crams so much in it would be churlish to grumble. After all most of The Beatles albums we're shorter than this.'The Dark of the Matinee' continues in a similar vein; choppy staccato guitars underpinned by a rhythmic and pulsing bass line. But the best is saved until last with the track '40ft'. If you've not heard it what are you waiting for? Get up off your bottom and go seek it out. It'll be worth the effort - I promise! Now that's hype you can trust.