American Football’s debut album that gives it an undying resonance, 25 years on from its release? “It’s all common themes, and I imagine I was going through them pretty commonly,” frontman Mike Kinsella offers.
It’s an understatement that suits ‘American Football’ (usually referred to as ‘LP1’). They were young students in the college town of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, when they made it; their band was one of many in the group of friends they hung out with. They were a mix of jazz enthusiasts and DIY punk kids, so the music mixed intricate instrumentation with a scrappy, heart-on-sleeve dynamic. Once they’d recorded and released the record, college ended and they drifted apart.
Few could have predicted what happened in the years following. This is often said about bands, but for American Football it’s meant in the truest sense — they never even aimed to make a second album. A few years after its release, the DIY emo scene they came from exploded into the mainstream; a few years after that, when the trend had died, a new generation of kids started recreating the pure, underground energy of those early days, and American Football were one of the key pieces of the puzzle.
The album gained traction and eventually, the erstwhile members of American Football noticed. In 2014, American Football reunited, and played to crowds ten times bigger than they ever had before; in 2016 and 2019, they released new albums that excitingly expanded on their original sound.
In commemoration of the album’s 25th anniversary, the band are set to release both a reissue and a covers album on which nine different artists recreate the tracklist — ranging from folk icon Iron & Wine to math-rock shredder Yvette Young, via Ethel Cain, Manchester Orchestra, Blondshell and more. They’re also heading out on tours across the UK which they’ll play the album in full.
The Fat Angel Sings 