Back in 2003, 'Darts Of Pleasure' served notice of a bright, stylish and sexy new pop thing, with a manifesto that revolved around making girls dance and the drummer having his kit set up so the ladies could see him onstage. By the start of 2004, they were in both the top three of the single and album charts, with the anthem 'Take Me Out' and their universally acclaimed self-titled debut bagging that year’s Mercury Prize and selling over 3.6million copies as a jolly bonus.

The next year they were back, and abandoning Alex Kapranos’ original plan of calling all the albums Franz Ferdinand (apparently record companies and certain territories find this sort of thing a bit of a pain), and so You Could Have It So Much Better was born, topped the charts and gave birth to another array of fantastic singles such as 'Do You Want To'.

Then in 2009, they released a vague concept album in Tonight, loosely based around a night of partying and the morning after, which also had a dub companion in the rather splendid Blood ‘versions’ album.

Now in 2013, they are well and truly back. Back. BACK and rather than bang on about their every move, they decided to keep shtum this time around. We at the Quietus can “exclusively reveal” that the new album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action is a right stunner.

I popped down to the band’s Sausage Studios (amazing name) to encounter the chaps doing some promo pics and the like, and then sat down with Alex to discuss his 13 favourite records. A picture emerges of all the vital albums in his musical upbringing, and they also give a glimpse into the myriad of influences that, um, influenced him.

Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action is out on August 26 via Domino and Franz Ferdinand play the Brixton Electric tomorrow, Tuesday August 20th. Click on Alex's image below to begin scrolling through his choices

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