Franz Ferdinand - "The Human Fear" : their new album

There haven't been enough Franz albums: this is only their sixth in 21 years. But, 2009's cautious Tonight apart, they have always sounded like they were built for fun. So it proves here. Opener and first single Audacious sets the tone, the most obvious nod to their work with Sparks in its heightened drama. 

It's followed by Everydaydreamer, which is as close as the album will come to a ballad, despite being driven by Audrey Tait's militaristic drumming.

The magnificent Hooked is where The Human Fear really takes flight. As full-on electronic as Franz have got, it's like Justice's famed remix of The Fallen, only with the band's songwriting front and center. If Take Me Out was the thrill of the chase then Hooked is equally thrilling about the life that you can have once you've found them.

Black Eyelashes is just as inventive. It's intricate, it's Eastern, it's, well, audacious. It also sounds like it'll offer you outside at any moment as it hurtles as quickly as it can towards a chorus. 

Bar Lonely is even more pugnacious, a taut stomp where Franz sound like The Sensational Alex Kapranos Band.

The ridiculous Cats sees the frontman fully off the leash, if that's an appropriate analogy for a song about yearning to be feline and on the prowl.

The Birds is the most explosive song of all. It's essentially about social anxiety in the online age, but really it's one long cathartic howl. Like the rest of album six, it's magnificent. It's also a ton of fun, and there won't be enough of that until Franz Ferdinand get their arses into gear for album seven, probably in another five years. At least we'll have this to lift everyone's mood until then.