This hook-up between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks plays to their shared strengths: artful pop, wry sophistication and killer choruses. Franz’s spiky guitar thrills and Sparks’ synth-theatre make good bedfellows on songs about pale and interesting strangers, a dictator’s wayward offspring and Hello Kitty machine guns. For all the arch humor, a measure of pathos means FFS never sound too pleased with themselves–not even on the operatic, titled-with-a-wink “Collaborations Don’t Work”.