Witnessing their astonishing ascent into mainstream adulation, there's an unmistakable feeling that, with their David Byrne posturing and a handful of Blondie riffs, Franz Ferdinand got lucky; that they were the art-school chancers in the right place at the right time.

And maybe that's true, but - to coin football pundit cliché - you make your own luck, and these guys have lived up to everything we so desperately wanted them to be.

With the brutish intro, the beguiling verse, the finger-clicking middle eight and the strutting chorus all recalling the gear-changes of Bowie's title-track on 'Station to Station', 'Matinée' is easily their most ambitious work to date.

Sparkling with Wildean wit, it's also the most lyrically engaging song on the LP. Triumphantly droll, incisively arch and riddled with a self-deprecating charm, Alex Kapranos proves that - like early Moz - he can be oh-so clever while still maintaining empathy with the listener.

Lucky? Lucky us!