American Football - American Football (LP2)

About a year ago now, I absolutely fell in love with American Football’s debut LP, a rite of passage that had eluded me completely until it was reissued. If I had one lament at that time concerning American Football’s music, it was that there simply wasn’t enough of it to be had. Thus, you can imagine my ravenous delight when I got my grubby mitts on their brand new follow-up album, American Football (LP2), seventeen years after their break-up. The prospect of more sprawling songs in which to lose myself certainly had me excited, and yet the fact that this band could not only recapture the magic of their youthful songsmithing, but also improve upon it, has left me amazed and impressed beyond measure.

It may be a bold statement, but to me, LP2 seems a massive step forward from American Football’s debut. While Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, and Steve Lamos have retained the emotional honesty and gentle but penetrating technical musicianship for which the act is known, there is no lack of evolution on this record. The musical and lyrical themes explored on their first album, both now considered quintessentially “emo,” are still present on LP2, but expressed in a more mature fashion. The band members use the wisdom and experience gained in the last seventeen years as lenses, giving the act a new light that is both profound and extremely relevant.

This maturity is most obviously present in the lyrics of the record. Although most songs started as interlocking guitar parts before being fleshed out in the band’s Dropbox, each piece feels written with vocals in mind, a distinct departure from the more instrumental-driven first record. Kinsella actually spent the entire recording sessions writing and rewriting his vocal parts to fit the songs, and this intense amount of attention certainly provides a solid product. Kinsella allows himself to be extremely vulnerable in songs like “I Need a Drink (Or Two or Three)”, where he admits an unhealthy dependence on alcohol, or with obscured acknowledgement of a tendency towards infidelity in “Desire Gets in the Way” and “My Instincts are the Enemy.”

As Mike states, he “feels more comfortable being sincere…in [the songs of] American Football,” an honesty which rings heavily in the tunes on LP2. He takes the tropes of introspection and sincerity for which his younger music was known and adapts them to fit his life as an adult. His statement of “We’ve been here before / But I don’t remember a lock on the door / Is it keeping me out or you in?” in “Where Are We Now?” brings a temporal aspect into the music, speaking of distance growing between two individuals over a long stretch of time. The lines “Wild nights when we were younger / We thought we’d live forever,” in “Everyone is Dressed Up” conjure a longing for the feelings of youth, yet in “I’ve Been Lost for So Long,” the album’s first single, Kinsella presents a very aware, if not humorous, version of those same feelings in the statement, “Doctor, it hurts when I exist / This isn’t the pain I’m usually in.”

But as LP2 exhibits, American Football’s music has grown in the interim, so much so that it is now able to look beyond the emo introspection of its youth. Kinsella’s writing has become more aware of the world around him and concerned for those who people it. “Give Me the Gun” is a track about “checking in on a distressed loved one,” while “Home is Where the Haunt Is” examines the effects of grief and loneliness. It is in this latter tune that Kinsella’s writing really shines, as he first acknowledges the heaviness of the situation: “the past still present tense / you need more time to mourn,” before finding some understanding and acceptance: “The ghost in the corner of the room / knows how you’re feeling / ‘cause your dead to him too.” LP2 shows this band’s growth from self-centered youths into responsible and responsive adults, connecting outward concern with the inward contemplation for which they are known.

The lyrical composition is hardly the one facet of American Football to have matured. Just as the scope of Kinsella’s writing has enlarged, so to has the band’s instrumentation. Both Kinsella and Holmes have retained the “sparkly” guitar sound which is their signature, and put it to work hard, but it is no longer their limit, as acoustic guitars, vibraphones, and bells all work their way to prominent spots in the songs. Similarly, the odd time signatures and interlocking melodies that define American Football’s sound are prevalent, but dialed back just enough to let Kinsella’s powerful, heart-wrenching vocals to take the center. And last but not least, their inclusion of Nate Kinsella as a full-time bassist has made all the difference, his unobtrusive yet poignant lines filling the low end that was so notoriously missing from American Football’s sound.

Perhaps the best example of the band’s sonic evolution is the second release from LP2, “Give Me the Gun.” The overall structure appears relatively simple, alternating just between A and B sections, but American Football brings its technical skills to the forefront with their time signature choices, writing the A section in a convoluted but harmonious 6/4 (one measure of 11 and one of 13), while the B section alternates between 8 and 7.  Kinsella’s vocals are sparse, his lyrics even sparser, allowing the intertwining guitars to meld together in between spotlights on Steve Lamos’ soft yet syncopated drum lines. “Give Me the Gun” is a perfect example of how this band brings its big guns to bear—subtly, letting the mood and music carry the true weight and adding flourish only when appropriate.

 

Whether or not you choose to place it against the band’s small but significant legacy, LP2 is an American Football record that easily stands on its own as awesome and evocative. The picturesque instrumentation, laden with both thought and feeling, couple perfectly with Mike Kinsella’s painfully truthful lyrics to design nine unique composites of the band members’ lives. LP2’s delicate beauty is both resonant and easy to absorb, and if it gives any hint as where these men are headed, I know I will continue following them with eager eyes and ears.

Tunes to Check Out:

1) Home is Where the Haunt Is

2) I Need a Drink (Or Two or Three)

3) Born to Lose