Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is Franz Ferdinand's upcoming third album. It is scheduled for release through Domino Records on 26 January, 2009 in the UK, and the following day in North America.

Recording

Franz Ferdinand began working on their third studio album in early 2006. The band planned to write and record the album in Glasgow. Although having written about eight songs while on tour in 2005, Alex Kapranos decided to write new tunes because he wanted the album to be "...quite new, to be quite different sounding from everything we've ever done before." Despite having recorded their sophomore album in a blitz, Kapranos stressed that the band wanted to take their time. He voices, “This time we wanted to spend more time developing, and also, I suppose, allowing songs and sounds to evolve more before we ended up writing an album, and absorbing more music and ideas and, I suppose, life itself. And when I say life, I mean life off the road, because I wouldn’t classify life on the road as real life.” Franz Ferdinand was supposed to record the album with producer Brian Higgins, yet in March 2008, the two entities parted ways. The drummer, Paul Thomson, says "We wrote with Higgins for a while and initially we thought we'd work more with him but it didn't really work out. We just realized that we're not really a pop group." However, they also commented they have not given up on the pop concept. It was announced on 20th of September 2008 that they had finished work on the album but still had no title for it.

On October 7th, 2008, reporter Michael Hogan from Vanity Fair interviewed Alex and Paul, who confirmed the title of their third album to be Tonight, with NME reporting the album's amended title and release date a week later.

Sound

The album has been reportedly inspired by the "heavy dub sound of Jamaican reggae stars." Alex Kapranos also stated the album has a "...streak of electronica...", however, is still a mix of influences. He also commented it has "..the heavy bass and space echo you would find on a dub mix." In a Rolling Stone interview, Kapranos stated the album is more of a dance than a rock record. In an interview with Billboard.com, Kapranos said "It's the opposite of punk/pop, which took something that was wonderful and removed all the dirt." He also said the band is using Russian Polyvox synthesizers. The album has somewhat of an African influence according to an XFM article in which Alex reeled, "We're one of these bands that are always gonna sound the same no matter what we do, but there are other influences there. I guess the drums are a little different, Paul has been listening to a lot of African stuff so that's gonna come through." It has also been reported that the song "Kiss Me" uses a human skeleton for percussion.

In August 2008, Franz Ferdinand released "Lucid Dreams" through iTunes and made available for listen on their official website. It is also featured on the Madden NFL 09 soundtrack. The band, however, stated on their website that "Lucid Dreams" was not a single. Alex Kapranos has stated that the track on the album will differ from this version.Vorlage:Fact

Track listing

1. "Ulysses"
2. "Turn It On"
3. "No You Girls Never Know"
4. "Twilight Omens"
5. "Send Him Away"
6. "Live Alone"
7. "Bite Hard"
8. "What She Came For"
9. "Can't Stop Feeling"
10. "Lucid Dreams"
11. "Dream Again"
12. "Katherine Kiss Me"