10 Most Overrated Indie Rock Albums Of All Time
5. Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
While it’s tempting to include Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled debut on this list, the fact is that record is a lean collection of momentum-shifting tracks that mostly bang. The same can’t be said of their follow up, a quintessential difficult second album which the press and the public nonetheless tried so hard to love.
The warning signs were there from lead single “Do You Want To”. Franz Ferdinand were always a band too easily amused by their own antics, but they were downright smug here, putting together an underwritten, lyrically obnoxious track that nonetheless still serves as an unwanted but hard to shift earworm.
“Well That Was Easy” suffers the same issue while being musically too similar to their first (not massively original) record, as does the downright unlikeable “This Boy”. The sweeping “Walk Away” fares much better, demonstrating the band’s ability to write mature music that’s smart but not smarmy.
It’s not a bad collection of tracks necessarily but so immediately showed up the band as a limited one. They’re still well remembered by many fans of a certain age; unfortunately that’s almost exclusively for their first 40 minutes of music.