FRANZ Ferdinand’s eagerly awaited third album, Tonight, was granted a somewhat lukewarm reception on its recent release.

The Scottish quartet, whose heady blend of grinding guitars and literate lyrics saw them carry off the Mercury Music Prize in 2004, had made vague noises about a bold new direction – but the result of their three-year labours was casually dismissed as ‘same old, same old’.

Whether or not they’re still mining the formula that gave us the top ten hits Take Me Out, The Dark of the Matinee and Do You Want To, they’re still delivering the goods – as last night’s sell-out Guildhall gig proved beyond a doubt.

Guitars wielded, Alex Kapranos and his bandmates were brimming with confidence as they took to the stage – an entirely justified confidence given the quality of the set that followed.

Never ones to dawdle, the boys (Kapranos is almost 37, but looks like he might visit tuck shops on a regular basis) delivered a series of short, sharp shocks of songs, from early favourites such as Michael (a testosterone-drenched tale of a straight man’s gay nightclub encounter) and This Fire to recent singles Ulysses and No You Girls (more after-hours debauchery – the Franz clearly know how to enjoy themselves on a night out).

As visually attuned as they are musically, they married their songs to some striking background art work.

Admittedly their sound hasn’t moved on that much since 2002 – but when you’re already at the top of the evolutionary ladder, is that so much of a problem?

Andrew White