It’s surprising that the term “supergroup” hasn’t garnered a more negative connotation. Every time a new one pops into existence, the band almost always fails to live up to its quixotic expectations, giving fans and music writers nothing more than just a really bad case of musical blue balls. There’s a lot of reason to believe that the newly formed FFS (acronym for Franz Ferdinand + Sparks) might be deemed for the same fate. The band, as their name ever-so-creatively suggests, is a conjunction of both noughties Scottish dance-rock band Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, a willfully cheesy LA-based glam band who’s enjoyed a cult following since forming in the early 70s. Statistically speaking, the band’s four Franz Ferdinand-derived members make up for 66.6% of the group, while the other two members, brothers Ron and Russell Mael from Sparks, complete the remaining 33.3%. However, the band’s sound is closer to the inverse, as the album entirely consists of a synth-driven sound, lending itself more to the likes of Sparks than Franz. But before you throw FFS into the “forgotten” bin along with The Firm, the Damn Yankees and Chickenfoot, you should know that there’s some needles in this haystack. See: “So Desu Ne.” The song begins with a catchy synth riff, and is kept alive by an equally catchy chorus. The album’s lead single, “Johnny Delusional” is also worth a spin on your turntable, even if Alex Kopranos’ choppy-yet-anthemic lead vocals might remind you of The Proclaimers’ “I’m Gotta Be (500 Miles)” at first. Rounding out the record is “Piss Off,” a last-ditch attempt to salvage what is a mostly mediocre album. But with lyrics like “Tell everybody to piss off tonight,” “They should piss off and leave you alone in your world tonight” and then adding “piss off” five more times, it becomes clear that FFS relies too heavily on their catchy sound and needs work at the whole “writing good lyrics” thing. — TOM BECK