Back in 2009, Franz Ferdinand covered Britney Spears' chart-topping hit "Womanizer" for BBC Radio 1. Sixteen years later, the Scottish rockers have another spears cover on deck for a different BBC station. In Radio 2's piano room, Alex Kapranos and the band joined forces with a symphony orchestra for a very fun version of the immortal "Toxic."
In a recent We've Got A File On You tied to new album The Human Fear, Kapranos talked about Franz Ferdinand's approach to covers, including that spin through "Womanizer." It began with talk of Franz's take on "Good Luck, Babe!" by Chappell Roan:
I like a good song. It’s that simple. I don’t care if the song is 60 years old or six days old — a good song is a good song. That Chappell Roan song is brilliant. I think she’s really cool as well. She’s got many, many good songs, and I like her attitude.
But that Radio 2 thing was with Jo Whiley, and she’s a fantastic DJ. One of the first sessions we ever did for the BBC was for her on Radio 1 and we had to do a cover of a contemporary pop song at the time for that as well. We did a Britney Spears song, “Womanizer.” And then later on we did Gwen Stefani’s “What You Waiting For?” And it was the same criteria for all those covers: We were asked to do a cover and we just chose a song that we’d all been enjoying as a band. In other sessions, I remember we did a cover of “It Won’t Be Long” by the Beatles, we did a cover of “Mis-Shapes” by Pulp, we did a cover of “Sexy Boy” by Air.
There’s loads of things that we’ve covered, and we always enjoy it. And I particularly enjoy it when the cover ends up sounding a bit like a Franz Ferdinand song. That always feels like a small victory. But, yeah, I still listen to what’s going on. I like to know, on both an uber-pop level, but also on a more emerging level. Last time I was in London, I got down to the 100 Club and saw this great band, Home Counties – they had such brilliant energy. I remember going to see English Teacher early on. And there’s a lot of great stuff going on in Glasgow still — we took this great band called Brenda on the road with us. They’re really worth checking out—they’re a three-piece girl synth-band, but with a total pop sensibility. You know that that good feeling you get—and I had this with Chappell Roan as well—where it feels like this song has always existed? Like, she’s just captured it from the ether and it’s always been there. It’s that good, it’s that complete. Brenda feel a bit like that, in a slightly more DIY radical kind of way.
"Toxic" is a good choice of repertoire when you've got a string section to work with. Watch the performance below.
