Monday, December 12, 2005

Franz Ferdinand Are Not That Good Really

Yeah, you read that correctly. I don't think Franz Ferdinand are all that. They think they the bomb, but they ain't, etc.

I came to this conclusion today, after having given the subject some fair amount of deep and profound thought. I think that Franz Ferdinand are, in fact, distinctly average. Sure they produce some toe tapping, upbeat, jangle pop - it's fine as far as it goes. It's just not that good is it? It's all hype and advertising if you ask me.

I'm going to push the envelope a bit more (yeah, I know, but I like to live on the edge etc) and say that it's appropriate to regard the band as little more than a slightly upmarket Status Quo. The similarities are there. Think about it. Both bands produce the same kind of fundamentally bland, middle of the road pap and deliver it with the same slightly self-satisfied, asinine grin. They're both fundamentally unthreatening - liked (or at least tolerated) by everyone from little boys to OAPs. Moreover, just as for Status Quo, every Ferdinand song sounds the bloody same. In fact, I'll go further (hold on to your seats) and say that every Ferdinand song pretty much sounds the same as every Status Quo song - the same da da doo doo, da da doo doo rhythm ad infinitum*.

Besides there are loads of much much better jangle pop/retro-new wave type bands out there - the wonderful Interpol, Futureheads and Editors for example. None of these bands are particularly ground breaking or original** (Editors are clearly Joy Division inspired), but they do produce music at least 10 times as interesting as Franz Ferdinand's.

Not that it matters of course. I'm just tired of those over-exposed (they get everywhere don't they?) be-suited guitar-pop-by-numbers goons with that perpetual 'don't you just love us' grin on their faces.

Just call me Princeps.***

* That's Latin that.
** I'm not saying that ground breaking or original work is necessarily to be valued more highly than derivative work, I hasten to add. What's the point in the continual search for paradigm breaking music? It's just a kind of fetishism of the new - the pursuit of newness for its own sake. Plus, 'ground-breaking' music is usually unspeakably awful - unlistenable shite.
*** A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha etc.



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