Music / FFS

Following

Personnel:

• Bob Hardy: bass, backing vocals
• Alex Kapranos: lead and backing vocals, guitars, keyboards (track 1)
• Nick McCarthy: guitars, keyboards, lead vocals (track 9), backing vocals
• Ron Mael: keyboards, backing vocals
• Russell Mael: lead and backing vocals
• Paul Thompson: drums, backing vocals

Tracklist:

1. "Johnny Delusional" (3:11)
2. "Call Girl" (3:21)
3. "Dictator's Son" (4:15)
4. "Little Guy from the Suburbs" (5:09)
5. "Police Encounters" (3:10)
6. "Save Me from Myself" (3:57)
7. "Sō Desu Ne" (3:52)
8. "The Man Without a Tan" (3:28)
9. "Things I Won't Get" (3:03)
10. "The Power Couple" (3:01)
11. "Collaborations Don't Work" (6:42)
12. "Piss Off" (3:55)

Bonus tracks from the Deluxe Edition:

13. "So Many Bridges" (3:16)
14. "King of the Song" (3:06)
15. "Look at Me" (5:43)
16. "A Violent Death" (3:51)

The Man Without A Trope:

•  All Love Is Unrequited: "Johnny Delusional" is about a guy obsessed with a girl even though he knows she's completely out of his league. Possibly bordering on Stalker with a Crush.
  I know yes and no in a couple dozen other languages
  But your form of no is the kind of look I can't deny
  Tell me, are persistence and stupidity the same?
  Tell me, is resistance so enticing, please explain
• All Take and No Give: In "Call Girl", the narrator worries he's in such a relationship. He keeps initiating all their dates, and spends all his spare money on her, but she won't even call him on her own.
• Attention Whore: The narrator of "Look at Me", who spends the entire song begging for you to look at him and him alone.
• "Cavemen vs. Astronauts" Debate: In "Collaborations Don't Work", an argument over punctuation escalates to the point that they need to call in a third party to mediate:
  Collaborations don't work
  A colon or a comma?
  And then a drawn-out drama
  Bring in the Dalai Lama
• The Cynic: The "Little Guy from the Suburbs" is a freedom fighter with an incredibly low opinion of his own movement. In particular, he repeatedly insists there are "No heroes / just those who care / more for their legend / than their life."
• Damned by Faint Praise: The narrator towards himself in "Johnny Delusional": "Some might find me borderline attractive from afar..."
• Defector from Decadence: The "Dictator's Son" has no interest in continuing "the family trade", so he flees to Los Angeles, with intentions of someday returning with a rebel force to overthrow his father.
• Double-Meaning Title:
  • Overlapping with Fun with Acronyms, FFS can stand for either "Franz Ferdinand & Sparks" or "for fuck's sake".
  • Both meanings of "Things I Won't Get" pop up on the lyrics, as the narrator sings about both objects and accolades he'll never acquire ("A Pulitzer Prize, an Oscar or two... a Bentley or Benz, well don't hold your breath"), and about philosophical concepts and art that are beyond his understanding ("String theory, thoughts of Satre and such... Schoenberg and twelve-tone and films that are French").
  • "Collaborations Don't Work" is mostly about artistic collaborations falling apart. But as tempers flare between the two artists, one of them likens himself to a political rebel and denounces any compromise as the other kind of collaboration.
• Epic Rocking: "Collaborations Don't Work" is over six minutes long.
• Face on the Cover: The cover is a collage of closeup photos of all the band members.
• Fun with Acronyms: FFS stands for "Franz Ferdinand Sparks", though it can also stand for "For Fuck's Sake".
• Get Out!: "Piss Off" is all about the joy of telling everyone who annoys you to go away and leave you alone:
  Get to the point and point to the open door
  Get right to the point and there's the door
  Tell everybody to piss off tonight
  They should piss off and leave you alone in your world tonight
  Most will listen and take the hint
  Know that this ain't a compliment
  And they should piss off and leave you alone in your world tonight
• Gratuitous Japanese: "Sō Desu Ne" (literally "I guess so") although slightly less gratuitous than usual since the song is at least about a Japanese girl.
• Gratuitous Panning: During the mock argument portion of "Collaborations Don't Work", Russell's accusations come out the right channel, and Alex's rejoinders come out the left channel.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: "Johnny Delusional" begins with Johnny unable to approach the object of his attraction because she's wearing headphones ("Words are in my head / but I can't enunciate them clearly. / Headphones on your head, / they prevent the chance to even try."); it ends with Johnny considering the terrible possibility that the woman isn't even listening to music, but is just wearing headphones to keep him away.
• The Inspector Is Coming: "The Power Couple" isn't about a formal inspection, but evokes the same mood. The narrators are desperately eager to please some rich and influential visitors, rushing to get their house in order and look respectable.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: The ending of "Sō Desu Ne". Most of the vocals and instruments fade out, until all that's left is the electric piano riff that's been playing for the whole song—at which point it slows down, like a record player running out of power.
• Law of Disproportionate Response: In "Save Me from Myself" the narrator is blithely unconcerned with apocalyptic threats and other physical dangers in the outside world. But the prospect of spending the night alone in his home makes him psychologically unravel and beg for someone to save him.
• List Song: "Things I Won't Get" is a long list of the things the narrator is sure he'll never get (in both senses of the word).
• Properly Paranoid: The narrator is immediately suspicious of "The Man Without a Tan" before he does anything, purely on the basis of his good looks. But in the final verse, the narrator actually does catch the Man seducing his girlfriend.
• Punctuation Changes the Meaning: In "Call Girl", the actual Title Drop in the chorus goes, "Why don't you call, girl?" The song lyrics by themselves portray an All Take and No Give romantic relationship—but "Call Girl" without the comma invites another reading where she's a sex worker and he's an overly attached john.
• Qurac: "Dictator's Son" never specifies where the country is, but the few details imply a stereotypical Middle-Eastern dictatorship:
  Born in a far-off land
  A nation of heat and sand
  A father who ruled by force
  A mother who said "Of course"
  A nation of fearful men
  And women afraid of them
• Self-Demonstrating Song: Most of the album is a true fusion of Franz Ferdinand's and Sparks' musical styles. But not "Collaborations Don't Work", which instead ping-pongs between distinct segments sounding like Sparks' synth-pop and Franz Ferdinand's dance-punk: the two styles never quite come together, because this collaboration didn't work.
• Self-Deprecation: "Collaborations Don't Work" jokingly argues that a supergroup like FFS is doomed to fail, and even features a sung argument between Russell Mael and Alex Kapranos:
  I don't need your patronizing
  I don't need your agonizing
  I don't need your navel-gazing
  I don't get your way of phrasing
  I don't think you're really trying
  What, pray tell, are you implying?
• Stalker with a Crush: Downplayed with "Johnny Delusional". It's not so much that the singer is actively stalking the object of his affections, but he's still refusing to take no for an answer despite knowing the girl is simply way out of his league. He presumably considers himself a Dogged Nice Guy, but the music video in particular makes him just seem pathetic:
• Step Up to the Microphone: Guitarist/keyboardist Nick McCarthy gets to sing lead vocals briefly on "Things I Won't Get". Keyboardist Ron Mael, bassist Bob Hardy, and drummer Paul Thomson sing lead for 'one line' each in "Collaborations Don't Work".
• Textless Album Cover: The band name and album title don't appear on the cover, but on a sticker outside the album's plastic wrap.
• Vocal Tag Team: Russell Mael and Alex Kapranos share lead vocal duties about equally, often trading off within a single song or even alternating with every line.
• Yandere: The unnamed woman in "Sō Desu Ne".
  She's a mountaineer of love
  She's climbing Mount Fuji
  Nothing but a Kenzo kimono on
  Carrying a Hello Kitty Uzi