"Always Ascending" is a song by Scottish

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. F ...

. It was released as the lead single from their fifth studio album of the same name on 25 October 2017. Two days before the release of the song the band released a clip of the song. It released along with a shorter edited version.

Background and release

After their 2013 album ''

Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action ''Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action'' is the fourth studio album by Scottish indie rock band Franz Ferdinand (band), Franz Ferdinand. It was released through the Domino Recording Company on 26 August 2013 in the United Kingdom and on ...

'' the band formed a

supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to: * Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields * Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry * Supergroup ...

with the American rock band

Sparks Sparks may refer to: Places *Sparks, Georgia * Sparks, Kansas *Sparks, Kentucky *Sparks, Maryland * Sparks, Nebraska *Sparks, Nevada *Sparks, Oklahoma *Sparks, Texas * Sparks, Bell County, Texas * Sparks, West Virginia Books * ''Sparks'' (Raffi ...

by the name of FFS in 2014. The band's name is an abbreviation of Franz Ferdinand Sparks. The group's existence was formally announced on 9 March 2015. In July 2016 founding guitarist

Nick McCarthy Nicholas John McCarthy (born 13 December 1974 in Blackpool, England) is an English-German musician. His main focus is on songwriting and song production. He is also a guitarist, singer and keyboard player. McCarthy was the guitarist, backing/ ...

left the band to focus on side-projects and spending time with his family, and was replaced with guitarist Dino Bardot and keyboardist

Julian Corrie Julian Victor Corrie (born 20 June 1985), better known by his stage name Miaoux Miaoux, is an English producer, musician and songwriter based in Glasgow, Scotland. He is signed to Chemikal Underground Records, who have released his albums ''Light ...

. Leading up to the song's release the band released a snippet of the song on 23 October. The song was released with an edited version, which has the roughly one minute 15 second long

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

intro and the shorter piano outro cut out. The song makes extensive use of a

Shepard Tone A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with the bass pitch of the tone moving upward or downward, it is referred to as the ''Shepard scale''. This cre ...

throughout, adding emphasis to the title of the track.

Music video

A music video for "Always Ascending" was released on 4 December 2017. It was directed by AB/CD/CD, who previously worked with the band on the music video for their FFS song "

Johnny Delusional "Johnny Delusional" is a song by musical supergroup FFS, consisting of members from the bands Franz Ferdinand and Sparks. The song was released as the lead single from the group's eponymous debut studio album on 13 April 2015. The official musi ...

". Described as "vivid" by ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', the video features

slow motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slo-mo or slow-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use o ...

scenes of the band's members floating around in front of abstract backgrounds. Band frontman

Alex Kapranos Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley (born 20 March 1972) is a Scottish musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and author. He is best known as the lead singer and guitarist of Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand. He has also been a part of the ...

described it as "pretty much a typical Sunday afternoon round at Franz Ferdinand's flat".

Track listing

Charts

References

{{authority control 2017 singles 2017 songs Franz Ferdinand (band) songs Domino Recording Company singles Songs written by Alex Kapranos Songs written by Bob Hardy (bassist) Songs written by Paul Thomson Songs written by Miaoux Miaoux