Album Review: FFS - FFS

FFS, the eponymous debut album from the collaboration project between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, feels a bit like a beautiful car crash in slow motion. I say slow motion because the two objects that make up the collision seen here have been careening towards each other since the good old days of 2002. For Sparks, the year marked a properly spectacular new chapter in their fourth decade of music. After countless sonic reinventions, dozens of character studies, and endless tongue in cheek bravado, Lil’ Beethoven showed the world that Sparks still had more innovation to bring to the table, even after all those years. The orchestral pop seen on this record and its followers sounded nothing like the band had done before But really, how many times could this be said looking that their career in its entirety? For Franz Ferdinand, 2002 marked the beginning. The visceral entrance of Darts of Pleasure and the soon to follow eponymous debut saw a new face with flamboyant, salty satire in rock music with a very promising outlook. Over the last 12 years, Franz Ferdinand has toyed with their sound, sometimes going louder, sometimes going softer, and sometimes straight to the dance floor with no holds barred. On their 2013 full length release Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, the band returned from a short hiatus with the most melodic and classic brit pop tendencies we’ve seen from them yet.

Sparks and Franz Ferdinand joined forced in 2014 for a feverish recording session. The groups wrote songs side by side, combining efforts with a brash sense of immediacy, recording without much patience for overthinking it. The resulting album from this entirely unique group six men strong is an absolute delight. Here, we see Alex Kapranos at his most melodramatic levels since “Michael” and the Mael brothers at their punchiest in several decades. FFS is a record that, very naturally, seems to find the best points at which to link the strengths of each band and create a ferocious new beast with a knack for storytelling.

Scanning the FFS tracklist, you’ll notice that the most obvious link between these two acts is also the most evident on their collaboration record: their love of character studies. For Franz Ferdinand, there are Katherine, Jacqueline, Michael, Eleanor, and more unnamed lovers and friends. For Sparks, the characters take on the first person in most cases, but the same type of explanatory dramatics arise in tracks like “Amateur Hour”, “Angst In My Pants”, and even later tracks like “Rhythm Thief” and “Suburban Homeboy”. On FFS, the list of characters is hilariously fun, while still making plenty of room for self deprecating humor and biting social commentary. The album’s first two singles “Piss Off” and “Collaborations Don’t Work” both give a meta interpretation of their own work together, as well as the work of other bands working against the grain in the shadowy part of the spotlight trying to create something memorable first and sellable second. While at first glance, the two might be a fourth wall breaking introduction to the FFS project, they serve to end the record wonderfully with a statement about choosing your own path in creating art, after 10 eclectic short stories about dubious characters that makes up the first forty minutes.

The album’s first two tracks made up the second pair of singles. “Johnny Delusional” and “Call Girl” both bite and spit like a screaming child, not taking no for an answer and doing so in the most coordinated, operatic way possible. “Johnny Delusional” sounds like it could be a Sparks track from way back, with its side characters ("Paging Mr. Delusional... you’re wanted at the front desk...") and comical bravado. “Call Girl” is pure Franz Ferdinand punch with the unbeatable formula of a broken heart and an infectious hook. In this way, Sparks and Franz Ferdinand both seem to trade off bringing primary ideas to the table, but the resulting mixture never feels too one-sided.

Young blood brings out some seriously excellent work from the Mael brothers one more than one FFS occasion. In their latest lyrical musings, Sparks seem to love being paranoid in a world running on status. “Dictator’s Son” and “The Man Without A Tan” both win sweeping awards for the most vivacious efforts on the record. The former is a hilarious jab at classism and privilege that is spiritually followed later on the record with “The Power Couple”, while the latter is a paranoid rock jam about a slick creep who doesn’t seem to get outside much. What is particularly fun about the FFS project is that this is first time in a while that Sparks have gotten to write material with a group of musicians (Franz) who work exclusively with each other. The Mael brothers have made extensive use of impossibly talented session musicians in their writing through the years, but it’s been a while since the same six guys sat down in the room and knew that in another half a year they’d be playing the same stuff together on a stage. This magic puts a lot of jolt into their step. Sparks bring their signature mixture of wit and whimsy on FFS and the men of Franz Ferdinand fill out the sound wonderfully.

When Franz take the reins on FFS, you know it to be the case. “Police Encounters” feels like a Franz Ferdinand track they’ve just been waiting to play with the likes of Sparks. Its over-the-top semantics are addictive. It’s a sound that makes you wonder why Franz has never made a record that sounds quite like this before. As a singer and a lyricist, Alex has always tended towards suave and removed, but here, he is bombastic and self-aware. It’s a really incredible new view of Franz Ferdinand that Sparks bring out of them wonderfully. But when they aren’t completely reinventing themselves on FFS, Franz bring the heat on “So Desu Ne” for the best pop track of the bunch. It’s a heated new wave jam that is bound to be wild in the live setting.

FFS are absolutely right – collaborations don’t work. The idea of two bands working in tandem without push or pull just lends to mediocre compromise. What makes FFS special in its own rite is that it truly feels like a band unto itself. The record never feels like something we’ve already heard from either of these bands. This fact should be a selling point in and of itself, given we’ve seen both acts take their sound a myriad of places in the past, oh, 15 to 40 years. As a debut record, FFS is impeccable, not wasting a single minute of its time. This is a delightful way to rediscover the vast musical horizons of two of our favorite acts.

FFS is out this week on Domino Records! Pick up the deluxe edition at your local record store on CD or vinyl and get four more tracks of collaborative goodness. FFS are touring Europe this summer, but keep an eye on their Facebook page for North American dates should they appear this fall.