This Glasgow-formed indie rock combo celebrate 20 years in showbiz with this aptly-entitled compilation, which chronologically looks both backwards and forwards.
Founding members, bassist Bob Hardy and frontman Alex Kapranos, oversee a set of 20 tracks which does as its title promises – although kicking off with the actually-not-a-hit debut ‘Darts of Pleasure’ but a track which paved the way for a string of chart singles sporting simple but infections hooks, and beats to drive, as per their mission statement, “records that girls can dance to”.
A feat accomplished on ‘The Dark Of The Matinée’, ‘This Fire’, and their breakout smash, ‘Take Me Out’, through to more recent additions to the Franz canon like ‘Always
Ascending’.
Sadly there’s no place for any of their work as FFS with the Mael Brothers, Sparks, but that’s perhaps understandable given the sheer fact that the band have more than enough material to fill this ‘best of’ several times over.
There’s even a sneaky addition of two brand new tracks – future hits if you will – featuring new drummer Audrey Tait: ‘Billy Goodbye’, all glam rock big beats, is far from typical Franz, but ‘Curious’ harks back to the now-quintet’s roots in snaking guitar lines and big choruses.
Which perhaps proves the old adage that this smart bunch of musicians will know – why change a winning formula just because you can?
This article originally appeared in the Blackpool Gazette.