Newsletter

Resenha: American Football – American Football (2016)

The music industry is ephemeral, a beast in constant metamorphosis. Today’s success is the hook of tomorrow’s jokes, and underestimated work doesn’t begin to receive due respect until a dozen years later.

The debut album by American Football, from 1999, is one of those semi-lost jewels in time, winning the adoration of critics and a small fan base without, however, leaving marks under the big spotlight. The band would come to an end in the following year – but the decade to come would not let that spirit rest in peace.

Alongside contemporaries like Clarity (Jimmy Eat World) e Pinkerton (Weezer), o American Football original would come to be cited as “masterpiece” and “reason why we make music” throughout the next generation of emo / indie rock. Time passed, the group’s popularity only grew, and there was no other: the launch of an official video clip for the classic “Never Meant” in 2014 would open the door to the meeting between Mike Kinsella, Steve Lamos and Steve Holmes – now accompanied by Nate Kinsella, Mike’s cousin.

Launched on the 21st and also entitled American Football (which here will be called LP2), the record shows from the first strumming of Mike Kinsella and Steve Holmes on their guitars that it is not a successor, a direct evolution of LP1. It is a classic reunion record, the result of the reunion of musicians who realized the existence of something special between them and decided to exchange an idea after a long time.

This does not mean that the second work is a less youthful version of the first. Right away you notice the change in the approach to the composition process: more conventional structures, with verses and choruses, without so many instrumental spaces. All tracks are sung and there are few moments of long musical texturing, as in the classic “Honestly?”, “For Sure” or “Stay Home”. This is not necessarily bad, as it facilitates “digestion” and presents less patient listeners.

“Where Are We Now?”, Which opens the album, is perhaps the best example: it does not take long to arrive or to leave, delivering in this medium a great chorus and the type of narrative that you would expect from the band seventeen years later. This is repeated, in large part, by the other tracks and makes it clear that the work is much less based on instinct, emotion and improvisation than its predecessor. There was a plan to be followed this time – and sometimes we get the feeling that Kinsella was missing and a bit of irresponsibility, an adventurous spirit. Well, now they’re responsible adults, after all.

Another characteristic that symbolizes a relative absence of risks is the fact that, around the second or third song, we find that the titles of all the songs on the disc are the first sentence of each track. At the American Football classic, were the last sentence. The semi-repetition of that formula does not carry the same charm this time, it may even sound like a beat trick.

But let’s stop and review the method of analysis applied so far: is it really fair to expect a musical revolution from a group as dysfunctional as American Football? Mike Kinsella followed through on the song with his solo project Owen, but Holmes practically dropped his instrument after the band ended and bassist Nate wasn’t even there on the first record. With enough problems to bring about a warm return that would hurt their legacy, it is impressive that the quartet is still able to deliver a work as cohesive as this, capable of desperate melancholy (“Born to Lose”), well-built interpersonal metaphors (“Everyone is well dressed, all very elegant / Someone must have found love or someone must have died ”, in“ Everyone is Dressed Up ”), and exploration of new melodic elements (“ Desire Gets In the Way ”).

It is true that some lyrics (“I feel so sick / Doctor, it hurts when I exist”, in “I’ve Been So Lost for So Long”) move with danger the fine line between the deep and the silly, but still carry feeling rarely replicated by bands born because American Football. The guitars continue to talk to each other lightly, drummer Steve Lamos maintains the jazzy flavor for which he is known, and Kinsella’s vocal delivery has matured as have his personal problems, transformed over the years into completely different demons.

That American Football LP2 is unlikely to replicate the dormant success of LP1 is nothing new. Whatever the internet mutation that is going on fifteen years from now, it is unlikely that this album will be rescued and re-signified by her as it happened with her predecessor. But under no circumstances will we, and the band itself, regret its existence: the music collection analyzed here exists in its private universe and dialogues in a unique way with the listener, even though naturally unable to escape comparisons. And that is an achievement in itself.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending