Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action

Four years passed between Tonight and this, long enough for the question to become whether Franz Ferdinand still had a reason to exist. Their answer in 2013 was to stop trying to expand and go back to what they were built for: short, sharp, danceable songs with a sneer in them.

It works from the first bar. "Right Action" is all angular guitar and handclaps, the sound of a band remembering it is good at this. "Evil Eye" leans into disco menace, "Love Illumination" opens with a horn blast and never lets up, and "Bullet" is under two and a half minutes of pure nerve. Alex Kapranos has always written best when he is being arch rather than sincere, and the wit here is sharper than it had been in years. Then the record does something unexpected: side two gets sad. "The Universe Expanded" runs its own story backwards and "Goodbye Lovers & Friends" closes the album on a genuinely bleak note dressed up as a party.

It is the tightest Franz Ferdinand album since the debut, and the one where their pop instincts and their art-school instincts finally stopped fighting each other.

Domino pressing on 180-gram vinyl. Ten tracks, no filler, in and out in under forty minutes the way this band always should be.