"...how I’ll never be anything I hate..."

Franz Ferdinand have given NME the exclusive comeback interview for their second record, revealing the inside story behind making the follow-up to one of the most successful British debut albums in years. The band reveal that the new album will be untitled and only distinguishable from it's predecessor by a change in colour scheme. FF move away from the traditional dark brown, orange and cream to a trio of black, red and pale green.

Speaking to FranzFerdinand.org earlier this week Alex said, "There's something quite bold about that, as if a title is irrelevant." In this week's NME, he explains further: "They will all be identified by their colour schemes rather than a title. The contrast of colours creates a different mood."

The band are currently deciding on which of the sixteen recorded tracks to commit to the new album, due for release in September. Amongst the shortlist are tracks that regular readers to this site will be aware of: 'I'm Your Villain', 'Well, That Was Easy', 'Walk Away', 'Evil And A Heathen', 'Your Diary', 'You Could Have It So Much Better', 'The Fallen' and 'What You Meant' as well as likely contenders for first single 'Turn It On' and 'Do You Want To? and newly named tracks 'The Outsiders' and 'Eleanor, Put Your Boots Back On'.

Alex concludes, "I'm excited by the new album. It's been exhausting producing it, like the most exhilarating experiences in life can be, but that's great."

I’ve been a supporter of this band, and I really like their first album, but this news both disappoints and bothers me. The whole ‘we will not have a title, we will be bold, everything is irrelevant’ thing I find to be a load of modern art (makes me want to rock out) abstract pretentious philosophical bollocks. I mean, seriously, it’s kind of like, ‘ooh, aren’t we edgy, aren’t we bold, we’re so different and pushing the edges.’ Whatever! Get the fuck over yourselves! What is this, a “concept album”?? And they’ve always been a bit pretentious. In the beginning, they came out and said, "Oh, we're just a pop band, we have no pretensions." But they were pretentious in that way, by asserting that other people were pretentious and that they were better than them because they weren't. And as friends of mine have pointed out, they’re not the first band to do the no title thing, so it’s not as “bold” as he makes it out to be.

I’m not saying that Alex is pretentious. From speaking to him and observing him speaking to others, I can say that I thought he came off as scarily normal and down-to-earth. But this packaging, this concept that the bands is making themselves into is so gimmicky. Let the music speak for itself, why does your album design and title have to make a statement?

And maybe I expected more. They’re so creative that wouldn’t it just seem they would come up with some amazing album title? Sometimes really good album titles are masterpieces in themselves. They can make you laugh (“Hey! Album”), smile (“Feeling Strangely Fine”), or move you (“When Everything Meant Everything”). And don’t we all love the process of opening a new cd and examining the artwork, exploring the secrets hidden in the liner notes and lyrics. I know that the music is what’s important, but the packaging is part of the experience of buying a cd.

Maybe, just maybe, this all wouldn’t bother me so much if I was being blown away by the new material I’ve been hearing. People call the band overrated, and I just don’t care because I like the music. If I liked the music on this album, would I just not care about the packaging? Then again, I’ve been hearing live tracks, and as much as I like them and enjoy seeing them live, I don’t think that their music is at its best live. So I will reserve judgment on the music until the album has come out.

But that doesn’t mean I have to do the same for the lack of title. In laymen’s terms, I think it’s just plain stupid.