Climbing the ranks of British royalty

ALL through the 1990s, it seemed, Britain sent its vaunted new rock heroes over to conquer America, where for various reasons they promptly expired like “War of the Worlds” Martians exposed to earthly air.

After all that crashing and burning, who would have thought a modest little combo from Glasgow, Scotland, with no high concept, no particular image, no heavy attitude and no notable controversy would be the one to turn the whole thing around and make British rock cool again, opening the door for a whole new brigade of Brits?

That’s what Franz Ferdinand did last year with its self-titled debut album, with the huge radio hit “Take Me Out,” and with a series of U.S. tours in which the band blossomed from eager, feisty club act to commanding big-stage headliner.

When the dust had settled, “Franz Ferdinand” had sold nearly a million copies in the U.S., and now the stage is set and expectations are high for Act 2: a new album, due Oct. 4, and a concert swing that comes to Southern California the same week.

Like “Franz Ferdinand,” the new “You Could Have It So Much Better” is propelled by an interplay of the playful and the dead serious, musical simplicity and compositional sophistication, lighthearted fun and dark shadows.

Singer-guitarist Alex Kapranos, bassist Bob Hardy, guitarist-keyboardist-singer Nick McCarthy and drummer Paul Thomson play their smart and snappy guitar rock with economy and precision, brandishing terse little hooks that twist the putdowns into their victims’ hearts. “I love the sound of you walkin’ away,” Kapranos sings with wistful venom in “Walkaway,” his voice a mingling of Brit-pop’s classic wounded romantics -- Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, Morrissey.

That’s just one of its strong links to the U.K. tradition that Franz Ferdinand now represents with such distinction. There’s also the unfailing dedication to melody and harmony, a sense of urgency welling from the tumult of youthful discovery, that whiff of sexual ambiguity that was introduced on the first album’s “Michael” and that recurs in the new single “Do You Want To.”

It might be too early to add Franz Ferdinand to the classic company of the Beatles, the Who and the Kinks through Roxy Music, Elvis Costello and the Smiths, but this fall’s showing should say a lot about the group’s prospects for joining that crowd.

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“You Could Have It So Much Better” (Epic Records), in stores Oct. 4. In concert at the Greek Theatre Oct. 7 and 8.