OPINION: American Football – Pre LP 2 Chatter

TITLE: American Football – Pre LP 2 Chatter
Author: Lok (Sweaty and Cramped)
Published: 17/10/2016

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“But like all treasures and desert island records, American Football’s self-title felt best left unknown to the general public, a secret kept dearly among a small group of heartbroken music nerds."

 

 

I first ran into American Football at an emotionally vulnerable time – Basically I was a whiny little shit.

By virtue/mixture of solitude and YouTube I found “The Summer Ends” and everything felt immediately compelling.

The long lingering syllables of Mike Kinsella’s lyrics redefined emo for me, a testimony that “angst” (for lack of a better word) can be portrayed subtly and beautifully.

But like all treasures and desert island records, American Football’s self-title felt best left unknown to the general public, a secret kept dearly among a small group of heartbroken music nerds.

For a while – a long while for the first American Football fans – it was.

No one gave a toss about American Football, just as no one gives a toss about Pele and Penfold (apart from the Japanese, of course, they’re the best)

So what does it say about American Football – after a successful reunion and a second self-titled album?

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The leading single “I’ve Been So Lost For So Long” was a promising start – the accent shifting* in pre-chorus parts still have that classic American Football quirk.

* From a frontal 6/8 (accent on 1,4) to a back beat (accent on 3,6)

Granted that the new sound is modernised and glossier, there’s still enough openness (ref – 2:50) for interesting things to happen.

“Give Me The Gun” and “Desire Gets In The Way” were similarly tighter and less scattershot, something that the band’s first LP is known for.

A look at the track-list of LP2 will tell you that the lengthiest song is just short of 5 minutes – “Stay Home” was 8 with 10 seconds to spare.

Just as the band have told press in a recent interview, fans should expect a lot less meandering.

Fortunately, I don’t feel it is a “trimming the fat” situation.

The early-adulthood doubts captured in LP1 seemed to have been bottled up and stored away, fermenting over the years.

All we will have to wait for is the forthcoming outpour.

 

“But if all fails… We can always invent a time machine and go back to year 2000, proceed to make Mike’s life so full – so good that he’ll probably stop writing sad songs."

 

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Having resisted the temptation of the full album leak, I do hope the album will be a reflection of it’s cover.

An inside look of the famed house – an introspective and self-contained record to come back to.

But if all fails… We can always invent a time machine and go back to year 2000, proceed to make Mike’s life so full – so good that he’ll probably stop writing sad songs.

Until then, we’ll see you again when LP2 arrives in the mail.

PS. Fuck my friends who’ve already seen the band live, fuck you all.