Popular noughties art-rockers Franz Ferdinand have announced details of their first studio album in nearly five years, along with a UK tour for 2018.

Having lost a member last year but adding guitarist Dino Bardot and keyboardist Julian Corrie for this year’s North American tour, fans of the Scottish band have been eagerly awaiting news about their fifth album.

On Tuesday, the band announced details of Always Ascending, and shared an official audio video of the title track and lead single. The album, produced by Philippe Zdar of French house act Cassius, will be released on February 9th 2018 via Domino Records.

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The same month, Franz Ferdinand will also tour the United Kingdom and Ireland in a dozen live dates before heading off to Europe. You can find details of the tour here.

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“In terms of the sound, the song is quite representative of the whole record,” Kapranos told NME. “This one sounds quite different from our previous records – it’s a bit wider and less of a ‘straight up guitar’ album. It’s just a taster. There are many more surprises to come.”

Elsewhere in an extensive interview, Kapranos spoke about the departure of guitarist Nick McCarthy in 2016.

“What it did was it brought Bob, Paul and I together. We became very close and we would hang out together all the time. That’s when we really started writing. It concentrated our identity and what we wanted to do as a band and what we wanted to make. Nick’s leaving was a real stimulus. When something major like that happens, it’s not as if you’re just going to carry on with the band as things were before. You either go ‘right, we’re finishing here’ or you focus and become stronger. That’s what happened to us. We had more fire and had more stimulation than we had for a decade. I’ve never been more intensely into the band.”

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