RAW FROM THE SAW – Album Review: American Football

It was 18 years after the release of American Football’s first self-titled emo masterpiece that they released their second album, but we have only had to wait less than three years for a third. Their 2016 album certainly marked a change for the band, especially with the edition of band member Nate Kinsella, but not until their 2019 album did they truly show that they are grown up and here to stay. American Football (LP3) begins with an eerie chorus of bells in “Silhouettes” that sets the tone for the texturally complex album that is to follow. The first track continues to weave its way through an ambient soundscape over seven minutes after its stirring introduction. Additional vocals, besides those of singer Mike Kinsella, are prominent on the album, with three songs featuring female singers. A children’s choir also adds to the texture of “Heir Apparent”, a song that also features mellotron flute and piano, creating an expertly blended shape that compliments the meaning of the song. The album features lyrics that are as poetic and emotionally charged as ever, but approach emotions from a more mature perspective, like in the Pink Floyd referencing track “Uncomfortably Numb” that features Hayley Williams of Paramore: Kinsella singing “I blamed my father in my youth / Now as a father, I blame the booze”. Kinsella’s and Williams’s vocals gently weave in and out of each other, at times creating tensions and at others creating harmony as they converse with one another. Trumpet, though not new for American Football, further adds to the rich texture of the album, and especially shines in the introduction of “Doom in Full Bloom”. American Football has allowed us to answer the question of what would happen if an emo band was allowed to actually grow up, and the answer is an amazing, transformative album.