Franz Ferdinand - "Do You Want To"
"Sorry Rachel. But the irony is that people like you, Rachel, made it difficult for real bands for a long time. Rachel Stevens is right. There has been a swing to real exciting bands, thank God. I looked at the charts the other day and it was amazing. Do You Want To was in the Top 40 along with records by The Test Icicles, The Arctic Monkeys and The Kills. Four Domino bands in the Top 40. I was like, 'Yes. Nice one.' "And it's great to see other bands like Arcade Fire doing well too."-Alex Kapranos in response to Rachel Stevens complaining about guitar bands suffocating pop
A big ball of confusion, that's what these guys are. The REAL irony is that the Franz Ferdinand credo seems to run more in line with the designs of usual Top 40 pop acts than with those of your typical indie guitar band. I mean, I thought these guys were all about trying to make rock music more danceable and fun, a revolt against its recent ingrown staidness, and now here they are shilling for the likes of Arcade Fire. Sure there's still the authenticity vs. fakeness contention, but seriously, does anyone really care about that anymore? You can't have it both ways, whoring to the pop gods for inspiration and then burning bibles when the cool kids walk by. Anyway, since I've neglected to say so already, "Do You Want To" is a fantastic song, catchy, geeky, and even a little bit camp. As much as I dislike how two-faced they are about it, I must say that there probably isn't another high profile rock band in the world that could get away with something like this and maintain their level of perceived artistic integrity. It's their best song yet by a mile.
