The guys that make up Franz Ferdinand are definitely a talented crew. You know that thing you say to your friend about his band when you don't really like them, "you guys are really tight!"? Well, Franz Ferdinand are..."really tight". Every beat and every note is exactly where it should be. Some may point to this as making the band lack "soul", but some bands have indeed used the structure of disjointed and mechanical playing to an advantage (here's the early-XTC reference). Unfortunately, Franz Ferdinand are not one of them. The bottom line is that Franz Ferdinand is full of half-realized songs that march along at a safe pace (really, every song sounds like a march).