Glasgow, Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand announce their new studio album, The Human Fear, will be released January 10, 2025 via Domino. It’s the band’s sixth album and first since Always Ascending in 2018.

Produced with Mark Ralph, who previously worked with them on their 2013 album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, the album showcases Franz at their most immediate, upbeat and life-affirming, unashamedly going for the pop-jugular in classic Franz style. The new collection will have 11-songs that all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives.

Lead singer Alex Kapranos said, “Making this record was one of the most life-affirming experiences I’ve had, but it’s called The Human Fear. Fear reminds you that you’re alive. I think we all are addicted in some way to the buzz it can give us. How we respond to it shows how we are human. So here’s a bunch of songs searching for the thrill of being human via fears. Not that you’d necessarily notice on first listen.”

The album announcement arrived with the video for first single “Audacious” which was directed by long-time Franz collaborator Andy Knowles and filmed at Barrowland in Glasgow, over the years the scene of many a celebratory “homecoming” gig for the band. Alex has this to say about the new song: “It’s about having an audacious response when you feel the fabric of existence come undone around you. Being bold, contrary. Peering over the edge into the eternity of non-existence and saying Aye! Fuck it! Not today thank you!”