FFS – FFS

Some musical partnerships are just meant to be. Take Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, making colourful and unorthodox pop together for fast approaching half a century, their muse as strong as ever. Now take FFS: a union with Franz Ferdinand born from mutual appreciation, which combines idiosyncrasies from each to create something fresh and distinct.

As the title of Collaborations Don’t Work indicates, a wry sense of humour is one of the shared qualities to work its way into FFS’s genetic profile (an archness evidenced elsewhere by lyrics rhyming “climbing Mt. Fuji” with “Hello Kitty Uzi”).

Other inheritances are more clearly traceable to one or other parent, but neither act’s influence holds sway: rather, the two sides meet in the middle and have fun with the possibilities. Out of this six-mind brainstorm emerges a classy melange of sweeping disco-pop, jaunty operatics and playful art-rock; often knowingly silly, but always seriously good.