Franz Ferdinand - Blood
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Blood is a companion album consisting of dub versions of three-fourths of the songs from Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. It was originally featured as part of the limited-release European box set & double disc versions of that previous album, and now they have released it worldwide…with an extra song that was not included on the limited-release version. The additional song is "Be Afraid," the reworked version of "Dream Again." A 500-copy limited edition vinyl release of Blood was also sent to independent record stores on the third Saturday of April, the day known as Record Store Day.
"Feel the Pressure," the "What She Came For" dub, loses something in the translation, but the "Die on the Floor" dub and is just as good as "Can't Stop Feeling." Similarly, "The Vaguest of Feeling" works as a dub and is also as good as the original, "Live Alone." "If I Can't Have You Then Nobody Can" is actually better than the original, "Turn It On," and "No You Girls" is completely ruined when it is changed into "Katherine Hit Me." The next two tracks, "Backwards on My Face" and "Feeling Kind of Anxious," retain the qualities of the originals, which is both bad ("Twilight Omens") and good ("Ulysses"), respectively. The closing songs are both improvements from the source tracks, "Feel the Envy" ("Send Him Away") and "Be Afraid" ("Dream Again").
- Score
- 68%
If you were one of the lucky ones to get the limited-release European version of Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, then the additional song probably isn’t enough to warrant the purchase of Blood. For the rest of us, however, this is an interesting collection of music that (just barely) surpasses the original album. If you thought Tonight was an enjoyable album then you probably can’t go wrong with Blood.
