American Football - LP4

Some bands release albums so seminal that they end up frozen in time. For American Football, you’d understand if this was very much the case. Their 1999 self-titled debut, with its iconic, much-memed artwork, has come to define an entire scene, taking on a life of its own in the two decades since. Its enduring appeal helped jumpstart the band’s second life for their reunion a decade ago, and it’s only grown more influential since (and unexpectedly TikTok-ubiquitous).

But ever since reuniting, the Illinois band have seemed reluctant to stand still, appearing uneasy at times with the gargantuan success of a record they made when still in college. Each album that’s followed (all similarly self-titled) has quietly pushed things forward. 2016 comeback ‘LP2’ offered a maturer, cleaner take on their evocative spacious sound, while 2019’s third album deepened that same atmospheric melancholy, expanding the palette with guest duets including Paramore’s Hayley Williams.

‘LP4’, their first record in six years, takes things further still: bigger, grander and more expansive than previous turns. Their album covers have always been bleary-eyed and washed-out, replaced this time by a deep scarlet night sky, and that shift is occasionally felt in the music too. There are moments of jolts: the jarring, off-kilter drums that open ‘Man Overboard’ dissolve into a cacophony of swirling noise, while the ferocious, sprawling ‘Bad Moons’ clocks in at eight minutes of pure catharsis. This isn’t simply the debut sound repeated ad nauseam. But there’s lightness too: ‘Wake Her Up’ sees them dabble in glittering synth-pop and suits them decently.

Yet even in the softer moments, Mike Kinsella often seems at odds with the music that surrounds him: his vocals occasionally cloying, the lyrics veering into genuinely dark territory. “Sedatives and therapists, there must be a better way to settle this,” he laments on one track. On another: “Fuck you, I already said I’m sorry for everything and I won’t say it again.” It’s a heaviness that makes sense in context: in interviews, the band have detailed a fractious period of divorces, bandmate departures and worrying admissions of alcoholism. At times though, it makes for an uncomfortable listen.

“I honestly never planned on getting old,” Kinsella concedes on standout ‘No Feeling’. They probably didn’t think they’d make it this far as a band either. But four albums in, imperfect as it is, American Football can still build atmospheres like few others.