American Football is a band that fits into the pantheon of indie groups whose music has influenced countless other artists. Steve Holmes, Mike Kinsella and Steve Lamos are legends in the emo and indie scenes. In 1999, Amerocan Football made a seminal self-titled album with the kind of music that fits a certain space and time and which spawned dozens of bands influenced by American Football’s twinkling guitars, varied time signatures and heartfelt and emotional lyrics.
Instead of a thrashing, angsty sound that had so many pop-punk fans hooked during this time period, American Football managed to create an album with sweeping, orchestral guitars and profound melodies. Even though each member had (and has had) several other musical projects, they never made another American Football album.
That is, until now. In late summer 2016, two years after playing reunion shows for the album’s 15th anniversary, American Football announced it would officially reunite and record a second album, also titled American Football. After 17 long years, the band’s follow-up to the hugely influential album is here and it’s pretty good.
The first American Football is a very special album for me. Its lyrics relate to me in a way few other albums or artists ever have and its twinkling time signatures send me to a place out of this world. It’s a perfect albums to me.
There’s really no way that Mike Kinsella and crew could ever live up to the hype or specialness of the first album.
That’s not to say that American Football (LP 2) is a bad album. Kinsella’s personal lyricism is still very present and the band’s instrumentation, while not as unique anymore, is still a treat to listen to in a single sitting. It’s just not as memorable as that album from 1999.
The songs are still introspective, but they don’t connect together in the same way the first album’s songs did. It seems like a loose collection of songs that the band came up with at random points in their 17-year “hiatus.” In fact, Kinsella even said in an interview with Pitchfork that, “It wasn’t very organic; we don’t spend a lot of time in a room together just jamming. We have a Dropbox folder, and people can chime in with their ideas.”
When taken on their own, the songs all have substance and weight to them. The band clearly took care in making each of these nine songs and each has a finality that declares that this is all they have in terms of emotions and musicality (in a good way).
They may even be more down-to-earth than the songs on the first album with Kinsella facing the facts of adult reality instead of petty, faux-complicated college emotions.
On the album’s final song, “Everyone is Dressed Up,” Kinsella muses about his former days as a midwestern college kid with “Wild nights when we were younger, we thought we’d live forever.” In the next line, he pivots back to reality with “At least we’ll die together.”
Kinsella’s lines are just as emotionally damaged as in the past, like on “I Need A Drink (or Two, or Three)” where he proclaims “Oh, how I wish that I were me, the man that you first married. I’m tired of fighting, endless thunder and lightning.”
The guitars, bass, and drums may not be as transportive as they were on American Football, but they still do a great job of setting the atmosphere and tone for each of the songs. They feel spacious and tight all at the same time without ever letting go of the song. The sound is still undeniably American Football.
American Football had a lot to live up to, and they partially succeeded. The nine new songs easily fit into its discography and should make it into any indie or emo-lover’s heart. They’re powerful and poetic, wistful and well-orchestrated. American Football is a great collection of songs, it’s just not a complete album.

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Review: American Football returns with its second self-titled album in 17 years