I was two when American Football's American Football was released, meaning I was born the same year as Mineral's The Power of Failing, and was one when Sunny Day Real Estate released How It Feels to Be Something On. Emo has typically been an under the radar sub-genre of indie rock, tagged with lots of "posts" and little "waves". Before being tainted by the likes of Jimmy Eat World and Thursday, "emotional music" had its fair share of attempts at breaking through into the mainstream, some projects more successful than others. The Promise Ring's music began to place more emphasis on the pop instead of punk, and Jawbreaker kissed away their independent fandom with the release of 1995's Dear You, which proved that maybe polyps do make for a better singer. Of course, then there's Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary, which many consider to be the pinnacle of emo, successfully combining the likes of indie rock and post-hardcore; the record also remains the Seattle based indie power house Sub Pop's seventh best selling record.
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois' American Football remained somewhat (and still does) of an anomaly in the lexicon of emo, considering it has close to no modern day imitators (apart from Oxford's TTNG). "Don't call it an emo revival" emo revivalists The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die and You Blew It! don't cite it as an influence, as quick they are to The Promise Ring or Sunny Day Real Estate, and their songs don't recall the shimmering washes of guitar of American Football. Almost all of the songs off their 1999 self titled debut (and only album) are played in a major key, detailing stories of long summer nights and falling out of love.
It's easy to get caught up in the myth of American Football, considering there's little myth at all. After the break up of Cap'n Jazz, the quiet brother of tape collage (non)expert and shit talker Tim Kinsella (of Joan of Arc, Make Believe), Mike, records a few songs with Steve Lamos and two others in The One Up Downstairs, before splintering after a short time together. Teaming up with guitarist Steve Holmes, the band calls themselves American Football, and they release one EP in 1998, an LP the year following, and then decide to call it quits.
Bizarre time signatures, inventive drumming, strange guitar tunings and few and far between vocals, that are always sung in a sigh, with tinges of regret and remorse. Like so many albums of the era, American Football is a breakup record, yet what differs it from the faux storytelling of other bands, is the structure of the narrative. It chronicles two months, July and August (emo kids' favorite), to the beginning of Autumn (ah! even better!), all while Kinsella details the dissolution of a relationship. Even the song sequencing conveys such a surprising sense of structure (following a song called "Honestly?", with "For Sure", and "You Know I Should Be Leaving Soon", with "But the Regrets Are Killing Me"). Other band members have shared in interviews that it seems as if Kinsella makes up the words as he goes at American Football shows, but every lyric is expertly placed, operating in the larger context of such an album.
Take the opener, "Never Meant", in which the listener is witness to a snippet of studio tomfoolery, until those dueling guitars kick in. The stop and start dynamics make make certain lyrics hit you over the head right away ("and the Autumn night we realized / we were falling out of love"), while others take their sweet time making themselves known ("everything we did/ 'best friends', and 'better halves' / 'goodbyes'"). "The Summer Ends" takes a different approach, as a doleful trumpet plays, inciting this break up ballad. The song takes nearly three minutes of intertwining acoustic and electric guitars, with Kinsella wondering how to say goodbye ("with a handshake / or an embrace / or a kiss on the cheek / or all three"), before there's a slight pause, as the song starts lurching forward with Kinsella taking on a throatier vocal styling, amounting to just one of the breath taking moments of the album.
The first few moments of the six minute "Honestly?" act as the album's truly rock 'n roll moment, with some of Kinsella's most curious, yet witty and disarming lyrics yet; "honestly I can't remember all my teenage feelings and their meanings / they seem too see through / to be true". Of course, then the song splits open, kicked in the ass by a tempo change as the two guitar lines blend, break, and play into infinity. Lamos' trumpet returns on "For Sure", evoking sadness through the band's attempts to emulate Steve Reich and Miles Davis. While there's no innovation like Bitches Brew, the trumpet succeeds in conveying such emotion that American Football profess, so it comes as no surprise as Kinsella allows the song to ebb and flow before coming in with one minute left just to croon in a falsetto, "imagine us together". To bring us back up again is the peppy instrumental, "You Know I Should Be Leaving Soon", which showcases Lamos' skill as a drummer, able to represent the ever changing heartbeat of an American Football song.
The next two songs remain some of the more straightforward American Football songs, unafraid of embracing the emo tropes that were present at the time. On "But the Regrets Are Killing Me", the guitar interplay between Kinsella and Holmes recall a more pensive (and Midwest oriented) Television, where "I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional" finds Kinsella trying to hit those high notes which he just can barely reach, making the effort even more earnest. Then comes the album's centerpiece, a monumental eight minute song, which just its title is able to distill the sentiments of a generation of emo kids: "Stay Home". Beginning with repeated cascades of guitar, recalling groups such as Talk Talk or even a lighter Codeine, the band proves that post-rock isn't limited to gloomy confines of Slint or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. And if the title was supposed to paint a picture of such a musical movement, the lyrics do even better, as Kinsella sings "that's life / so social / so physical / so so-so / so emotional / so stay home" during one of the group's signature time changes. "The One With the Wurlitzer" closes things out nicely with a short instrumental, as Lamos' trumpet takes center stage.
Considering the musical landscape of 1999, it can sometimes make sense why such a record as American Football was initially ignored. Emo had become an over saturated (as well as excessively saccharine) sub-genre of indie rock, with the same clashing guitars and the same singer who can't really sing. It didn't matter if you sounded like Sunny Day Real Estate or Mineral, because everybody from Elliot to The Appleseed Cast sounded like these two bands. Also, a record as modest and understated as American Football would obviously have trouble going up against the best of 1999: Wilco's Summerteeth, Bonnie "Prince" Billy's I See a Darkness, Built to Spill's Keep It Like a Secret, The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin and of course, The Dismemberment Plan's Emergency & I. American Football's timely reissue comes with a generous plethora of demos, liner notes, and photos, but the real significance is that the album is widely available once again. It touched a select few upon its initial release, and now, it has the ability to mean something to even more.
American Football - American Football
10/10
Recommended Tracks - "Never Meant", "The Summer Ends", "Honestly?", "For Sure", "You Know I Should Be Leaving Soon", "But the Regrets Are Killing Me", "I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional", "Stay Home", "The One With the Wurlitzer"
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