Take Me Out

Take Me Out is the song that made post-punk revival the sound of 2004. Franz Ferdinand arrived from Glasgow with immaculate suits, angular guitars, Alex Kapranos's dry vocal delivery, and riffs distilled from the entire Gang of Four and Wire catalog into three and a half minutes of perfect pop.

The song's structure — a slow, angular opening that stops and restarts at a faster tempo, the transition between the two halves one of the great pivot moments in 2000s rock — is a masterclass in arrangement.

Franz Ferdinand's debut was one of the most fully realized statements of any band's first record in the decade. The post-punk revival as a commercial movement peaked with this song.