Line #17 Music/FranzFerdinand


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/t5b5aca5_7423.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: The original quartet. Left to right: Alex, Paul, Nick and Bob.]]
3	->''When I woke up tonight, I said I'm,\
4	Gonna make somebody love me,\
5	I'm gonna make somebody love me,\
6	And now I know, now I know, now I know,\
7	I know that it's you,\
8	You lucky, lucky, You're so lucky!''
9	-->-- "Do You Want To"
10
11	Franz Ferdinand is a Scottish PostPunk[=/=]DancePunk band formed in 2002. They're named after a racehorse, Archduke Ferdinand, which was named after the [[UsefulNotes/FranzFerdinandOfAustria Austrian archduke]] whose assassination sparked UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
12
13	The members are:
14
15	* Alex Kapranos - lead vocals, guitar
16	* Bob Hardy - bass guitar [[note]] Not a Scot, Bob is a Yorkshireman, and Alex jokes that it's sometimes difficult to tell the difference.... [[/note]]
17	* Dino Bardot - guitar (2017-present)
18	* Julian Corrie - keyboard (2017-present)
19	* Audrey Tait - drums (2021-present)
20
21	Former members include:
22	* Nick [=McCarthy=]- backing vocals, keyboard, rhythm guitar (left the band in July 2016 to focus on his family)
23	* Paul Thomson - drums (left in 2021)
24
25	!! Discography:
26
27	* ''[[Music/FranzFerdinand2004 Franz Ferdinand]]'' (2004)
28	* ''You Could Have It So Much Better'' (2005)
29	* ''Tonight: Franz Ferdinand'' (2009)
30	** ''Blood: Franz Ferdinand'' (2009) - A dance-rock dub RemixAlbum of ''Tonight''.
31	* ''Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action'' (2013)
32	* ''FFS'' (2015) - Collaborative album with Music/{{Sparks}} ([=McCarthy's=] last album)
33	* ''Always Ascending'' (2018) (Thomson's last album)
34	* ''[[GreatestHits Hits to the Head]]'' (2022)
35
36	----
37	!! I say, don't you know? You say you don't know, I say trope me out:
38	* AllLoveIsUnrequited: "Johnny Delusional" is about a guy obsessed with a girl even though he knows she's completely out of his league. Possibly bordering on StalkerWithACrush.
39	-->I know yes and no in a couple dozen other languages\
40	But your form of no is the kind of look I can't deny\
41	Tell me, are persistence and stupidity the same?\
42	Tell me, is resistance so enticing, please explain
43	* AlliterativeName: ''Franz Ferdinand'', duh.
44	* AlliterativeTitle: "Swallow, Smile", "Forty Feet" (usually written as "40'"). Album wise, there's ''Always Ascending'' and ''Hits to the Head''.
45	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: As Kyle [=McGovern=] of Spin magazine noted regarding the "Evil Eye" music video:
46	-->''"The clip splices together a stomach-turning montage of gross-out footage: Blood spewing from a sink faucet, people getting butchered and dismembered, throats being cut, cannibalism, and frontman Alex Kapranos sporting [[PornStache a dirtbag mustache]]."''
47	* TheBackwardsR: In, at minimum, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haW_ruZ_Be8 the video for "This Fire"]]. Fitting, as the video has a heavy influence of Soviet Constructivist art.
48	* BlitheSpirit: Lynsey Wells (of "L. Wells"), particularly as depicted in the video. Worth noting that she is a real person the band knew (though not the girl in the video).
49	* BreakupSong: "Walk Away".
50	* CallBack[=/=]ContinuityNod: the ending of "Swallow, Smile" echoes the lyrics from "Well That Was Easy".
51	* CaptainObvious: This extract from "This Fire":
52	-->"Now there is a fire in me, a fire that burns".
53	* ConceptAlbum: ''Tonight:'', the tale of a long, hard-partying night of drunken debauchery (most likely in Glasgow).
54	* ConceptVideo: "Jeremy Fraser".
55	* TheCoverChangesTheGender: Averted with their cover of "Womanizer".
56	** Played straight however with their cover of [[Music/{{Blondie\|Band}} "Call Me"]].
57	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The videos for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3zzTXNS4Aw L. Wells]]", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc6l3XeA_94 Jeremy Fraser]]", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMfjROpKCnw Bullet]]" and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAbPx_-IJBI Fresh Strawberries]] and a lot of promotional pictures. It's fair to say they quite like this trope.
58	** A variant appears in the video for "Feel the Love Go", it's filmed in grainy VHS quality with 480 aspect ratio, appropriate for the '80s theme of the video.
59	* DerangedAnimation: The video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijk4j-r7qPA "Take Me Out"]] is a surreal melange of clockworks, body parts, old-school sketches, and abstract diagrams.
60	* DreamWalker: A common interpretation of "Lucid Dreams" is that it's about a man wanting his lover to join him in dreamland.
61	* EndingTheme: "Do You Want To" is the ending theme to ''Manga/ParadiseKiss''.
62	* EvenTheGuysWantHim: "Michael".
63	* EpicRocking: "Lucid Dreams" is almost 8 minutes long.
64	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: "No You Girls" uses a human skeleton for percussion.
65	* GratuitousGerman:
66	** The ending of "Darts of Pleasure".
67	** "Auf Achse" is a title-only example.
68	** And then [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcLODDy9Uw the German version]] of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-SFac3GpxY Tell Her Tonight]]".
69	* GratuitousJapanese: "Sõ Desu Ne" (literally "I guess so") from ''FFS'', although slightly less gratuitous than usual since the song is at least ''about'' a Japanese girl.
70	* {{Guyliner}}: All the band members in the music video for "This Fire".
71	* IntercourseWithYou: "Do You Want To".
72	* InTheStyleOf:
73	** "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" and "Wine in the Afternoon" are described as [[Music/TheBeatles "Beatlesque"]].
74	** The music video for "Walk Away" is done in the style of a FilmNoir.
75	* KidsAreCruel: "Jeremy Fraser", which may also double as a MurderBallad.
76	* LongDistanceRelationship: The subject of "Come On Home" and "Eleanor Put Your Boots On".
77	* LongRunnerLineUp: The original lineup of Alex Kapranos, Bob Hardy, Paul Thomson, and Nick [=McCarthy=] lasted from 2002 until 2016, when [=McCarthy=] departed. In 2017, the band added Dino Bardot and Julian Corrie.
78	* LyricalColdOpen: "Do You Want To", "Lucid Dreams" (album version only).
79	* MadnessMantra: The outro of "Treason! Animals" as said in the lyric packet. "I am an animal, oh give me an animal crown (x infinity)"
80	* MindScrew: The album version of "Lucid Dreams".
81	** Also the music video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCxLpte5loY "Johnny Delusional"]]. Be warned, it's also a more literal mind screw as the constant spinning motion may end up making you dizzy.
82	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Tonight''.
83	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: "Demagogue" is pretty clearly a TakeThat against Trump.
84	* NonAppearingTitle: "Auf Achse".
85	* ObsessionSong: "This Fire", "Turn It On"
86	* OdeToIntoxication:
87	** "Ulysses", although it's more about getting high than drunk.
88	** Averted with "Wine in the Afternoon". It's a standard love song; the drinking is thrown in as a bonus.
89	* OneManSong: "Jeremy Fraser", "Ulysses", "Michael".
90	* OneWomanSong: "Jacqueline", "L. Wells" (the L. is short for "Lynsey"), "Katherine Kiss Me", and "Eleanor Put Your Boots On".
91	* OneWordTitle: "Ulysses", "Michael", "Jacqueline", "Outsiders", "Demagogue".
92	* OpeningTheme: "This Fffire" serves as this for ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners''.
93	* PerspectiveFlip: At the end of "No You Girls", the lyrics are sung from a girl's point of view.
94	* PostPunk: One of the Post-Punk Revival bands that rose to success in [[TurnOfTheMillennium the 2000s]].
95	* QueerRomance: The narrator of "Michael" really, really wants to dance and make out with a hot guy he sees at a club.
96	* RecycledLyrics: Taken to its logical extreme; "No You Girls" and "Katherine Kiss Me" are ''the same song'', on the same album, with a different melody. This is driven home on Alex's Soundcloud, where the demo version of "No You Girls" is named "Catherine Kiss me".
97	* ReligionRantSong: "The Fallen". As Alex would have it, JesusWasWayCool, and were he alive today, would be hanging with the poor and downtrodden, and not the self-declared Christians drinking champagne and riding in limousines. (In other words, [[Creator/FriedrichNietzsche the last Christian died on the Cross]], and [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Christ is so unlike the Christians]]).
98	** While the lyrics have nothing to do with it, the video for '' Feel the Love Go'' is mocking TV evangelists who scam money out of their followers.
99	* RemixAlbum: ''Blood: Franz Ferdinand'' is all dub-inspired remixes of ''Tonight: Franz Ferdinand''.
100	* {{Retraux}}: The band loves all kinds of ''tasteful'' blast-from-the-past fashions, to say nothing of all the vintage equipment they use.
101	* TheRoaring20s: Their first album ''runneth over'' with the references to the '20s -- especially in the videos, which are obviously influenced by UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} and Vkhutemas/Soviet Constructivism.
102	* SafetyInIndifference: "Live Alone" is about the singer avoiding intimacy with his lover so that nothing ruins their relationship.
103	* SelfTitledAlbum: Their debut. Originally every single album would be named ''Franz Ferdinand'', differentiated by the cover, but the idea was dropped.
104	* SharpDressedMan: The original four. Look at the page picture. Alternately, look at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haW_ruZ_Be8 the video for "This Fire"]]. It goes with everything they've done, too, from the Soviet Constructivist look of their first album to whatever you call what they're doing now.
105	* ShownTheirWork: Sure, they may have been named for a horse rather than the assassinated archduke, but ''All For You Sophia'' shows they aren't ignorant of the latter.
106	* ShoutOut:
107	** In the lyrics booklet, the line "come and dance with me" in "Michael" is preceded by a crossed-out "[[Music/TheRollingStonesBand come all over me]]."
108	** At the end of "The Dark of the Matinée": ''So I'm on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC 2]] now/Telling Radio/TerryWogan how/I made it and/What I made is not clear now/But his laughter is and his deference is...''
109	** "Love and Destroy" is based on the plot of ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita''.
110	** [[Literature/TheOdyssey "Ulysses", natch]]. (Although a reference to that other ''[[Literature/{{Ulysses}} Ulysses]]'' may have been intended, as well.)
111	** From "Outsiders": "In seventeen years / Will you still be Camille, / Lee Miller, Gala or whatever".
112	** "Walk Away" is rife with references to Radio 4 and various historical figures.
113	* SillyLoveSongs: "Wine in the Afternoon".
114	* SixthRanger: Andy Knowles of The Fiery Furnaces, who occasionally filled in on an instrument if the main player goes on something else (keyboard, drums, what have you)
115	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Some of the songs (e.g. "Jeremy Fraser", "Fabulously Lazy" and "Van Tango") are sung by Nick, and the German version of "Tell Her Tonight" is sung by Paul.
116	* StylisticSuck: The video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIR5vBiC3ig Evil Eye]]" is made to look like a low-budget horror film.
117	** The video for ''Feel the Love Go'' is made to look like an '80s telecast of a [[ScamReligion Fake Evangelist]] complete with grainy VHS quality, bad wigs, a painfully fake dog, and clip art of a winged saxophone floating around the screen during the sax solo.
118	* SubliminalSeduction: If played backwards, "Michael" contains a secret message:
119	-->''Call your mother, she's worried about you''
120	* {{Supergroup}}: They formed FFS with Music/{{Sparks}} in the mid-2010s, and they made it clear that it was a whole new band and not Sparks backed by Franz Ferdinand or Franz Ferdinand featuring Sparks.
121	* SurrealMusicVideo:
122	** "Take Me Out", making use of collage techniques similar to UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} and Creator/TerryGilliam's animations for Creator/MontyPython.
123	** "Evil Eye". Even with the low-budget horror film look, it still doesn't explain everything going on there.
124	** Their B-Side release, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie2JpR7xzvg Erdbeer Mund]]" is sung completely in German, contains visual effects last seen in an acid trip, and contains Nick [=McCarthy=] in drag.
125	** "Love Illumination'' cuts to rapidly shifting random patterns, weirdly sexual images, stiffly moving creatures, the band in animal masks, and a bunch of other strangeness. Drugs not required.
126	* TitleTrack:
127	** "You Could Have It So Much Better".
128	** "Right Action" is a shortening of the album's title, ''Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action''.
129	* TranslatedCoverVersion: Their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcLODDy9Uw German cover]] of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-SFac3GpxY Tell Her Tonight]]," featuring Paul. Strange, seeing as it was Nick who grew up in Bavaria.
130	* UnpluggedVersion: Acoustic versions have been recorded of "Take Me Out", "The Fallen", "Twilight Omens", "Walk Away", "No You Girls", "Ulysses", "The Dark of the Matinee", and "Darts of Pleasure", the latter under a different name.
131	* VideoNasties: The video to "Evil Eye" pays homage to the genre.
132	* {{Yandere}}: The FFS song "So Desu Ne".
133	--> She's a mountaineer of love \
134	She's climbing Mount Fuji \
135	Nothing but a Kenzo kimono on \
136	Carrying a Hello Kitty Uzi
137	* YourMakeupIsRunning: "Walk Away":
138	-->''Mascara bleeds a blackened tear''
139

Context Music / FranzFerdinand