Franz Ferdinand push and challenge the Maels and are (pretty much) equal partners here. Sparks are rocking again with a band worthy of their talents, and these songs clearly reflect the collaborative spirit sometimes missing in latter day Sparks albums. FF bring Sparks around to an accessible, pop-influenced sound that serves the Mael brothers well. FF vocalist Alex Kopranos offers wonderful counterpoint to Russell Mael and the melding of the two voices is flawless. A particularly effective example is Police Encounters, where Russell and Alex sometimes seem to be singing two different melody lines that fuse together seamlessly as the music pounds on. A collaboration that works for all parties and it’s clear the six guys involved are having a lot of fun.
Our bodies become a prison of our own desires. Having the freedom think and feel however you please is not an option. In Obscura, the characters are trapped inside a Hollywood ideal of who they should be. They are contracted and directed to do the art the way it wants to be done. In the film, the script has a mind of its own. The environment becomes a death trap for them, caging their bodies inside a set until it’s finished with them.
Not sure if Franz Ferdinand gave Sparks a youth elixir, or the Sparks gave Franz Ferdinand the savoir faire that a long brilliant carreer brings. It is simultaneously a perfect Sparks and a perfect Franz ferdinand album, only better. You start by falling for a couple of the more immediate tracks, but after two or three listens, you realize it is a whole album deal. In fact, I have started to think of it as a kind of conceptual rock-opera (about the dictator’s son). Not one to get a track or two from. The whole album is a winner.
completely epitomizes the creepy stalking nature that the character Easton Caldwell possesses. It’s a sexy villainy that he has that grabs your attention. He creates a world where he encloses his whole being in your embrace, sweeping the audience off its feet. His charming prose, much like a wordsmith Shakespearean actor, he carefully crafts his words to create the tension and solidarity of his conquest. With this song, it’s slow and methodical, almost like a panting lion grazing under the grass, moving slowly towards his minions. Easton crawls back to your surface, forcing you to love him. The trick is that you may never know it was just a magic trick.
VIDEO REFERENCES FOR FFS:
JOHNNY DELUSIONAL- DIRECTED BY LUCILLE WEIGEL
TAKE ME OUT- DIRECTED BY JONAS ODELL
FFS
Obscura 