Franz Ferdinand — Blood

Blood is offered as the dub version of Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, which was a disappointment when it was released earlier this year. People like me who saw the word "dub" and were hoping to find some King Tubby or Lee "Scratch" Perry-type remixes of those songs will be disappointed again.

Dan Carey, who produced the original album, was also at the controls for Blood. Unfortunately, his ideas weren't any better this time.

Opener "Feel The Pressure" is spacier, more mechanical and has less vitality than Tonight's "What She Came For," but it's still one of the best things on this disc. I'll take the primarily instrumental "Katherine Hit Me" over the original's slow, acoustic "Katherine Kiss Me." But aside from the OK (that's the most enthusiastic adjective I can allow myself) "Backwards On My Face" and "Feeling Kind Of Anxious," this album doesn't have much to offer, and that includes the totally new "Be Afraid" that ends this nine-track effort.

I'm going to try and forget that Tonight: Franz Ferdinand and Blood ever happened (which shouldn't be too hard) and hope that this Glaswegian band can return to the heights of their first two albums with their next record.

Get it from