On new disc, Franz Ferdinand sets the hook once again

The fact that they named their band after the Austro-Hungarian Archduke whose murder sparked World War I should have been the first clue that Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand had more up their sleeves than cheap synths and manic beats. A mere year after releasing its pithy, catchy debut -- which won the 2004 Mercury Prize and sold more than 3 million copies worldwide -- the Glaswegian quartet blithely sidesteps the sophomore slump with its fabulous follow-up, "You Could Have It So Much Better," in stores Oct. 4.

"The last album was all right," says lead singer Alex Kapranos, on the phone from the UK. "But we did want to do something with greater range and depth to it."

While labels like to keep hot bands on the road for a couple of years or more while touring behind a strong-selling album, Kapranos, guitarist Nick McCarthy, bassist Bob Hardy, and drummer Paul Thompson pulled the plug on their 2004 tour after only nine months in order to write and record the new album.

"When you have the creative urge you have to do the best you can with it," Kapranos says. "Otherwise you have a band that's sick of each other and the songs and music in general. The idea of returning to the studio like that didn't appeal at all."

So they set up a home studio in the countryside south of Glasgow and listened to a grab bag of music -- from Led Zeppelin and Lil Jon to George Harrison and Syd Barrett to Public Enemy and Amerie. They came up with a collection of songs that does exactly what a sophomore album should: recaptures what everyone loved about the first album -- in Franz Ferdinand's case, dark wit, nervous energy, and great hooks -- while expanding the band's palette of ideas and sounds.

"If you look at your immediate contemporaries alone for inspiration, your music will be bland and uninspired," says Kapranos. "It's the curse of modern rock, this insular approach. We listen to Dr. Dre and and ask ourselves, 'How can we make something not that sounds like that, but that has the power of that record?'"

The album's brawny, glamorous first single, "Do You Want To," strings together pieces of conversation the singer and songwriter overheard at a party celebrating the last night of their tour in December. Lines like "I love your friends/they're so arty" typify the scene for Kapranos.

"We're having a bit of a laugh at ourselves," he says. "When people have a degree of success it can inflict ego a little too much. It's important to make the distinction between taking what you're doing seriously and taking yourself seriously."

Among the disc's gratifying surprises is "Walk Away," a surf-grunge meditation on emotional conflict, a pair of sweet, quirky ballads -- "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" and "Fade Together" -- and the classic, riff-heavy album opener "The Fallen."

"I do think there's a lot more going on here," Kapranos says. "After playing so many gigs over the last year and a half we feel so much more confident and intuitive. We're only just beginning to do what we feel capable of, and that's exciting."