It's been a while since Scottish band Franz Ferdinand released a new album — more than three years, in fact.

For some bands, taking time to produce an album works wonders. But in Franz Ferdinand's case, their latest effort, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, may have spent too much time in the studio.

The album is a sharp contrast to their 2005 release, You Could Have It So Much Better, which, in turn, was a contrast to their first, self-titled album in 2004. Changing things up previously worked well for the band, but Tonight does not.

It seems that the band was trying to make Tonight more subtle and cohesive than their previous albums. They achieved this, but only to their detriment. Any efforts at subtlety resulted in a feel of excessive tweaking.

The bulk of the album is monotonous. Songs blend in to one another so much that it's too easy to forget the song changed — particularly "Turn It On," "No You Girls" and "Send Him Away." The melodies for the tracks in the middle of the album seem almost identical.

Certain elements that once made Franz Ferdinand so distinctive are completely absent from the album. Sharp guitar riffs have been replaced with excessively electronic-sounding instrumental parts. The rock with a danceable beat sound has fallen flat. Overall, Tonight lacks the raw energy of the band's more interesting previous works.

Despite lacking in certain areas, the album does contain one gem in the opening track "Ulysses." The song effectively combines the band's efforts to incorporate new effects into their music, while still staying true to the Franz Ferdinand sound.

Lead singer Alex Kapranos shows off his vocal versatility, starting off at a whisper and building to end with an all-out belt. The song crescendos impressively — the finale is an exciting blend of computerized mini-tunes; crunchy, distortional guitars and an excellent bit of drumming from Paul Thomson.

Two tracks share the title "Lucid Dreams" and are different versions of the same song. The first clocks in at about seven minutes, and contains a rather unnecessary synthesized instrumental section that is easy to lose interest in. The second, and the album's closing track, maintains momentum throughout, and is somewhat redeeming of Tonight's middle songs.

Franz Ferdinand should, if anything, be commended for experimenting with something new despite the fact that the new sound does not reflect what fans would probably like to expect from the band.