When a band as marvellous as Franz Ferdinand makes an album as marvellous as their debut, they're almost setting themselves up for a fall. It came with their second outing, 'You Can Have It So Much Better': a lead single ('Do You Want To') bursting with pop pizzazz wasn't enough to save a critical pawing (rather than a mauling), and a solid album was unfairly dismissed as sub-par.

For their third album, the Glasgow-based quartet veer away from the more considered dealings of their sophomore effort, and return to the area they've always excelled in - writing top-quality, danceable indie-pop tunes.

Make no mistake: 'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand' may harken back to their early days, but it's very much a step forward in their career. The opening triad of Ulysses, Turn It On and No You Girls are cases in point, all driving, funky midtempo pop-rock songs with choruses made from aural superglue. So, too, is the taut, sophisticated disco beat of Live Alone; Lucid Dreams is different again, its slack bounce giving way to an elongated glitchy electronica section, while Send Him Away nods to the melancholic analogue jangle of '60s beat bands.

Even if Franz Ferdinand never recapture the initial euphoria of their debut - a nigh-impossible feat for any band - as long as they keep making albums as exciting as this, there'll be more opportunities than 'Tonight' to dance the evening away to their blissful tunes. A victorious return.