Franz Ferdinand - Auf Achse

Franz Ferdinand

Studio album by Franz Ferdinand
Released 9 February 2004
Recorded 2003
Genre Post-punk, indie rock
Length 38:45 (single disc)
54:35 (double disc)
Label Domino Records
Producer Franz Ferdinand, Tore Johansson

Franz Ferdinand is the debut album by Scottish indie rock band Franz Ferdinand, released in early 2004. It entered the United Kingdom album charts at number three in February 2004 and contains three UK top ten singles: "Take Me Out", "This Fire" (on the download chart) and "The Dark of the Matinée" or "Matinée". Franz Ferdinand won the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. The album has since sold over 3.6 million copies worldwide. The album is notable as one of the very few modern albums that are not compressed to the max in participation of the loudness war.

Chart performance
The album entered the UK album charts at #3 in February 2004 and at #12 on the Australian ARIA album charts in April 2004. The album entered the Billboard 200 album charts on April 26, 2004, and climbed slowly, peaking at #32 in December 2004. It reached #2 on the Heatseeker chart for new acts. As of September 2004, there have been five different singles released from the album:

The "Darts of Pleasure" EP reached the top 50 of the UK singles charts in September 2003.
"Take Me Out" reached the top 5 of the UK charts, top 10 of the Irish charts and top 40 in a composite European chart.
"The Dark of the Matinée" or "Matinée" reached the top 10 of the UK singles charts and top 30 of the World Modern Rock Charts (a composite chart of United States, German, UK, Swedish, Finnish, Canadian and Australian modern rock charts).
"Michael" reached the top 20 of the UK singles charts in August 2004.
"This Fire" only first played by KROQ in September 2004.
Take Me Out was voted #1 in the national Australian music poll, the Triple J Hottest 100 (2004) and This Fire and The Dark of the Matinée were placed at #29 and #50, respectively.

Track History:
Auf Achse is a song about unrequited love by the band Franz Ferdinand, from the album Franz Ferdinand. "Auf Achse" literally means "on the axle" in German, a common metaphor for "on the road" and also the title of a 1980s TV series about truckers. It has also been stated that 'Auf Achse' was the first song written by Kapranos and McCarthy.

The song is very obviously based on and contains parts of Gordon's Gin by The Human League, as found on their Travelogue (Human League album).

The last lines reference Jesus's crucifixion:

And now I'm nailed above you, gushing from my side

It's with your sins that you have killed me

Thinking of your sins I die

Thinking how you'd let them touch you

How you'd never realise

That I'm ripped in half, forsaken

Knowing never will I rise
This song is about a lonely trucker, or so Alex Kapranos often states when he introduces the song live. The song's title can be misspelt, "Auf Asche" which literally means "on ashes".

Lyrics:
You see her, you can't touch her
You hear her, you can't hold her
You want her, you can't have her
You want to, but she won't let you
You see her, you can't touch her
You hear her, you can't hold her
You want her, you can't have her
You want to, but she won't let you

She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done

Now you wish she'd never come back here again
Oh, never come back here again

You see her, you can't touch her
You hear her, you can't hold her
You want her, you can't have her
You want to, but she won't let you

You see her, you can't touch her
You hear her, you can't hold her
You want her, you can't have her
You want to, but she won't let you

She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done

Now I'm nailed above you
Gushing from my side
It's with your sins that you have killed me
Thinking of your sins I die
Thinking how you'd let them touch you
How you'd never realise
That I'm ripped and hang forsaken
Knowing never will I rise
Again

You still see her
Oh, you hear her
You want her
Oh, you want to
You see her
You still hear her
You want her
You still want to

On Set:
Alex Kapranos -- lead guitar, lead vocals
Nick McCarthy -- rhythm guitar, vocals, keyboards
Bob Hardy -- bass guitar
Paul Thomson -- drums, percussion, backing vocals
Andy Knowles (touring only) -- drums, keyboards, guitar

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Franz
• Ferdinand
• Indie
• Rock
• Alternative
• 2004
• Alex
• Kapranos

[kyle10124]

@werefoxgirlie This is a shit story

[Matt412100]

Stop posting quotes stupid emos

[vlcekfil]

that awkward moment when auf achse tells a story of your life...

[angrym0nkeysh0w]

This song is so underrated!

[GBarros2010]

@GreenSnowleaf it's your not you're. and yeah, he really is a hater, but I can't blame him for not wanting to see emo quotes in a indie song. either you get back to tumblr or go see a my chemical romance song

[GreenSnowleaf]

@lvaleiron First, I never said emo's are a race, second, okay you're right about the hater thingy. Second, I said "Shut up You fucking dick." Not "Shut up you're fucking dick.".

[lvaleiron]

@GreenSnowleaf emo is not a race -_-... maybe hater or intolerant but not racist. BTW, he should shut his fucking mouth not dick =P

[GreenSnowleaf]

@Matt412100 Why is your comment one of the top comments, just shut up you fucking dick, stop trying to get emo's down, fucking racist.

[garfields33]

Jeez.. It's just great song. And we can all hear what he says. You don't have to type it in the commentary..

[brettka]

@manixela1221 I like Franz Ferdinand better. Strokes is famous I think because they are American.

[ninjaflytipper]

Just makes sense