Thursday 23 July 2009

93: Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out

Not without reason was 'Take Me Out' rated as the 34th greatest track ever performed by a British artist. In late 2003, Franz Ferdinand were one of a raft of up-and-coming British indie-rock bands, whose debut single, 'Darts Of Pleasure' had spent one week at #44 before dropping out of the UK singles charts altogether. Fast-forward six months, and the follow-up single, 'Take Me Out' had hit the giddy heights of #3 in the UK charts, #7 in Canada, and #66 in the Billboard Hot 100 - no mean feat for a ramshackle bunch of Glaswegians. Better yet, the single went gold in the US by virtue of half a million sales, and the world-renowned Time magazine described them as "a band you wish you hated".

And the single at the centre of this stratospheric rise? Well, it's one of the most recognisable guitar riffs of the decade. A frantic intro gives way to that slow pounding drum beat, before the guitar kicks in. Go on, sing it to yourself, it's easy. "Nur nur na-na nur-nur-nur." That riff was EVERYWHERE in the summer of '04. And the lyrics were as easy to sing along to as anything the Kaiser Chiefs could produce. "I say you don't know, you say you don't go, I say.... TAKE ME OUT".

I'd like to direct you to the brilliant Pythonesque video, directed by Swede, Jonas Odell.



From my research, I'd say Franz actually put more thought into the video than the single itself. But no matter. It's a timeless piece of Brit-pop-rock, that still gets used to soundtrack computer games and sports highlights montages 6 years later, and that's a testament to the song's sheer brilliant simplicity.

1 comment:

  1. I'd have thought this would come much higher than 93. Wasn't vastly impressed by FF at first, thought they were little more than a glam retread of The Strokes, but the debut album has aged well.

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