Franz Ferdinand – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action

Alex Kapranos has talked of how Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action comes from "the idea of the cynic's search for optimism.” It’s a compelling concept for a band that have played the music game for over a decade. If youth is behind them, then they aren’t panicking. Instead, the Glasgow quartet still mix the staccato energy of punk with highly calibrated pop ballads.

With direct hits like Stand on the Horizon and Bullet, it's another radical exhibition of how guitar lines can weave and creep around each other before breaking into perfectly synced melodies, all layered over Paul Thomson's pounding drum lines. 

The album concludes with Goodbye Lovers and Friends, a dark, brooding reworking of a track Kapranos collaborated on with Boom Bip in 2011, finishing with the chorus: “When they lie and say this is not the end, you can laugh and say we’re still together.” It sounds final, but this shouldn’t be the end. Time gets us all Alex, but there’s plenty of cause here for optimism. [Tom Seymour]