American Football - Never Meant Album: American Football [1999]
american football consisted of vocalist/bassist/guitarist mike kinsella, guitarist steve holmes, and drummer/trumpet player steve lamos, and offered an almost emo/post-punk esthetic, blending jazzy tempos, pop hooks, and earnest vocals into their sound. the group released their self-titled debut EP in 1998 and their eponymous full-length in 1999. considering the incredible appeal of american football's debut single with polyvinyl, it was quite easy to expect great things from their first album - tracks like "the one with the tambourine" took kinsella far beyond his emo roots, into beautiful territory that had more in common with red house painters. the group's album debut didn't hit quite the same heights, but it came close on several accounts. the obvious progression from the polyvinyl single came in the form of horns and wurlizter dabbed tastefully onto a few tracks. kinsella's main strength seemed to be in drifting, floating waves of melody, and "american football" made good on this in a pretty impressive way. i'm not sure what happened to them after this, but creating a song like "never meant" easily give them my stamp of approval.
No comments:
Post a Comment