Over the past twenty years, Franz Ferdinand has proven to be a reliable group that will always provide a solid, fun album in the rollicking post-punk style we’ve come to expect from them. The Human Fear is no exception, with tracks featuring the band’s signature jangling guitars, dark synth beats, and clever lyrics.
The album starts off with “Audacious,” a catchy song that showcases great instrumentals and would sound at home in any of Franz Ferdinand’s earlier albums. “Night or Day” is one of those charming love songs that lyricist and head vocalist Alex Kapranos is so skilled at writing, and its themes of the everyday, mundane nature of a romantic relationship feels like a nice maturation from previous love songs like “Katherine Kiss Me.” “Hooked” comes in dramatically with intense synth and the lyrics “I’ve got the fear, I’ve got the human fear,” setting us up for a campy-cool dance track that features Kapranos leaning even further than usual into his deep, too-bored-to-care vocal styling. Overall, this isn’t a groundbreaking record, but it is a damn good one.
That being said, there are a few elements here that offer something new to those who have been listening to Franz Ferdinand since the beginning. The Human Fear is almost a concept album, though perhaps a more accurate thing to call it is a themed album. The theme is, shockingly, human fear. The entire album examines what it means to be a person just getting through life, with a focus on anxiety, fear, relational conflict, trying not to screw up, and screwing up. In keeping with Franz Ferdinand’s typical tongue-in-cheek cleverness, the tracks that most interestingly explore human behaviour are the ones about animals. “Cats” is a humorous meditation on the conflicting desires to let one’s inner wild animal out or to keep it “living inside” like a house cat, and “The Birds” is a driving, atmospheric song that rocks hard while delivering a poignant message about forgiveness and the inevitability of letting people down.
The biggest departure on this album, and a favourite, is “Black Eyelashes.” The song does not sound like anything Franz Ferdinand has done before, but still showcases their distinct style. “Black Eyelashes” is a song about Kapranos’ Greek heritage and how he fits into this identity, featuring Kapranos singing in Greek and old-world instrumentals with a rock edge. This is a Scottish indie-sleaze version of old-timey Greek rebetiko, which is not something we knew we needed, it turns out, it’s exactly what Franz Ferdinand were missing.
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