The American Analog Set were never quick movers. Hailing from Austin, one of the spiritual homes of American alt-rock, the songs from their debut album “The Fun of Watching Fireworks” onwards seemed to develop in a haze of their own making. Using similar indie-rock stylings to the likes of American Football, Modest Mouse and Yo La Tengo, the band made gorgeously tired dream pop that was always hushed and carefully considered. By the time of their 2005 swansong “Set Free” they had perfected a brand of almost Motorik pop that seemed to exist in a sonic field perfectly suitable for warm and lazy afternoon listening.
For listeners used to the nuanced delicacy of their old work, “For Forever” may come as a bit of a shock at first. Opener ‘Camp Don’t Count’ is built around a dirty old riff that is as near to opposite their earlier, fluffy, machine-washed sound as possible. By the time Andrew Kenny’s voice emerges it has a progressive urgency. On album highlight ‘Screaming For Vengeance’ his voice is slathered in reverb and fronts up a driving motorik track that, in another universe, could be Metallica or Black Sabbath. But in The American Analog Set’s hands it’s still, decidedly indie-rock.
They still blend guitars with organs and Rhodes piano. And they still take their time over everything – intros are long and dreamy, building up a bedrock of sound before Kenny deigns to grace us with his presence.
According to the liner notes, the album was made between 2015 and 2019. By my calculations it is now nearly 2024 and so I’m not exactly sure of how this gestation period has worked. It figures, though, that a band that takes their time over their compositions may also be tardy in releasing them. Whatever is the case, American Analog Set have somewhat lost the box-fresh innocence of their early work and become a more troubled and moody proposition.
The similarity is that it holds this mood throughout. They never really cheer up, and if anything they grow darker as the album progresses. The title track makes everything around it sound concise – a twelve-minute slow builder that heads deep into Codeine territory with its spindly, wintery guitars.
The American Analog Set are such a nuanced band that it doesn’t take much to blow their sound slightly off course. Rather than a predictable lurch into electronica or an attempt at pop, they’ve simply toughened their sound up leaving everything else pretty much unchanged. Whether “For Forever” is strong enough to give them a second chapter as successful as the likes of American Football have enjoyed is for history to decide, but for fans of early late-90s / early-00s indie rock here is another band working out of time, doing their own thing, and coming up with striking, immersive results.
The Fat Angel Sings 