American Football Return Home with LP2
On October 21, Chicago Emo pioneers American Football released their unexpected follow-up to their self-titled 1999 debut. The new album, American Football (LP2), is also a self-titled record, and for very good reason. Bandmates Mike Kinsellla, Steve Lamos, and Steve Holmes have spent 17 years away from the American Football moniker, a band that started as a studio project and grew into a cult phenom beyond their own expectations. Within that time, especially as the prospect of “getting the band back together” fell into place, Mike and the two Steves (with the addition of Nate Kinsella, Mike’s cousin) have grown in their music and their introspective musings on life and all the meanings of it all.
As the record opens with “Where Are We Now,” the twinkling guitar melodies bring us back to 1999, to the identity of the first American Football. But once Kinsella comes in with the opening line (the names of each track are pulled from the first line of their respective lyrics), a grown voice asking a question of circumstance, it becomes very clear that this is not the same band of kids from Illinois; these are men returning to that same place out of time, walking through that same house which they haven’t returned to in years. The locks have changed, but, as Kinsella sings “Is it keeping me out or you in?” the possibility that the past is better left untouched is brought forth, extending outward as a statement for the idea of what American Football means and whether or not bringing the band back together was worth it. But as the following chorus finds the “skeleton key,” the record continues onward, the rehashing of the past becoming the sole occupant of the house.
“My Instincts Are The Enemy” brings in recollections of “Never Meant” with a more upbeat riff pulling the listener inside, as the band acknowledges its own impulses getting the better of them. Kinsella repeats the feeling of trouble creeping up from behind but knows he can’t say no to what, in the end, feels right. It’s at the revelation that the song breaks from its popping rhythm to a lonely guitar-picked melody, building with layers of additional melodic strums and a thumping bass until it breaks into a revelatory song of trudging through the unbearable. As this exploration of American Football’s math-rock roots intersects, it gives a sense of flight that you could only get by riding a bike through an old neighborhood. It’s worth noting that the band’s inclusion of organ keys on this track assists in that soaring transition, proving once again that their sound expands with age.
The acoustics come out at the start of “Home is Where The Haunt Is,” bringing back the haunting sense of remembering a place once forgotten, this time for good reason. “The ghost in the corner of the room” is the overlooming dread in this track, hinting to a presence that is still felt but long gone from this space. It hints to signs of abuse, with lines such as “Those wounds won’t lick themselves,” but rather than relive the events in question it comes to terms with the pain of the past and learns to cope in this space (”Some things never change/Maybe that’s okay”).
“Born to Lose” is light on the lyricism and heavy on the instrumental factor, drawing back to their previous album’s “The Summer Ends,” yet this time around Lamos adds an infectious backbeat to the angelic guitar harmonies that bring the track through with 30 seconds of solid head-nodding grooves. The talk of animals and primal instincts on this track extend from the previous tracks, the band acknowledging once again that they can’t help but act on impulse (”Animals know not what they do”). And it’s clear how this goes beyond the weaving storytelling of the record; impulsive behavior is what brought them back to the house that American Football built in the first place.
As the track fades out, the abrupt start of “I’ve Been So Lost For So Long,” the first song released by the band to promote this record, brings back that sense of flight. Instead of passively taking the pain, American Football confront it head-on and question if it’s really there at all, changing guitar melodies and tempo, and the song kicks along on all four legs. Sonically, “I’ve Been So Lost For So Long” may be the most progressive song on this album, solidifying truly how the band’s songwriting has grown from nearly two decades of separation, the last line “Maybe I’m asleep and this is all a dream” breaking down into bare guitars that fall off beat but stay in tempo. This breakdown of structure within a single song shows how the heart of this band has stayed young and strong through its absence.
“Give Me The Gun” flows back into the heavier storytelling lyricism of the record, arguably a direct sequel to “Home Is Where The Haunt Is.” Again, it imposes a confrontation of the fear rather than a notice of its presence (”I’m not here to question your motive/But I’m scared for us both”) and becomes active in its progressive tendencies, ending with a xylophone-tinged melody as a positive cliffhanger that says “we’re going to end up fine.”
Surprisingly, American Football haven’t brought in the trumpets at all yet (Lamos is as notable for his additional horn-playing as for his drumming on the ‘99 American Football). But when they do appear, they sound larger than ever before at the start of one of the tightest tracks on the album, “I Need a Drink (or Two, or Three).” A melodic trip built on only three verses, it’s the track that knowingly longs for the past in some of its darkest ways, Kinsella giving in to the impulses with open arms rather than pushing them down below the surface (”I can’t break this bender/To it, I surrender”), wishing that he could be the man he once was as opposed to the man he is now. The nerves pull apart on this track, and it’s one of the more heart-wrenching tunes on the album, which says a lot for a band that has carried the Emo genre without needing to lift a finger for 17 years. But as the song ends with a country-slide guitar-type riff, not all ends on a sour note. It’s proof that, once again, American Football can go deep down inside and still end on a high note.
From as low as they know how to go, “Desire Gets In The Way” pumps up into something of pure beauty and bliss. Kinsella shouts in rare vocal gang form, bringing out a new passion within the group that wasn’t seen even in their early days. It’s a sing-along American Football track, which in turn feels unheard of, with distorted guitar riffs and muted trudging that blows back into a deeply intimate bridge that feels new and yet all so familiar to their sound and their legacy.
And then it all falls back into the ever-observant “Everyone Is Dressed Up.” This track reads more like a journal entry straight out of the band’s past, analyzing a room of well-dressed people and the reason for their gathering (”Someone must have found love/Or someone must have died”). What first sounds like fly-on-the-wall musing of the band’s memories becomes a musing on life itself; we live, we die, time moves on, and we never really forget where we came from. Lamos’ trumpet blares beautifully, recalling right back to the sound of their first album. The nostalgia castle that the band constructs throughout this song becomes deconstructed, brick-by-brick, in the final verse as American Football find themselves surrounded by familiar faces and lovers. And then it ends on the last line (”In the company of others, I’m reminded why/Your lifetime lover’s the temperamental kind”) so abruptly and quietly that you never see it coming. Of all the sorrowful and self-reflective moments on this album, it’s this moment at the very end that stings the most.
American Football (LP2) is what coming back home sounds like. It’s finding your old bike in the shed, revisiting the pizza place you stopped in after school, driving through old neighborhoods, your first kiss, your first fight, the corners of the rooms that gave you nightmares, your first heartbreak, and the last time you said goodbye to your first home. It’s a sonic trip through our past and all the feelings that have stayed there; they live inside the house, pouring in from the windows and taking up residence in the attic. It’s never easy to look at who you once were directly in the eyes years after you’ve moved on, but the visiting back and forth makes you all the wiser, whether you realize it or not. That’s what this album does; it brings back something lost 17 years ago and puts it in a new and familiar wrapping. It’s the music we love yet never knew we needed more of. Sometimes all you need is to be reminded of what it meant in the first place.
Take a trip down memory lane through American Football (LP2), now streaming on Apple Music and Spotify.