Franz Ferdinand - Tonight

Despite their own denials, Franz Ferdinand make much more sense as a pop group than a rock band. With pop, they don't have to 'progress their sound' or 'add emotion' so long as the singles still hit the spot. Tonight is a potentially pivotal record for a band whose goodwill well - overflowing four years ago - is quickly running dry. It offers tiny glimpses of both those rockist concessions, but they're trivial moves in the light of the obvious and exuberant quality of the potential singles here. Songs like Twilight Omens, which borrows its irresistible suave futurism from Roxy Music, or the Moroder-referencing Live Alone, prove that Franz haven't yet hit a drought. Tonight's elongated ending - a three-minute-long acid trance outro to Lucid Dreams followed by two sleepy ballads - seems to mirror the end of a night out; and like a good night out Tonight can be momentarily riveting while still leaving you with little to recall in the morning. [Ally Brown]