It’s undeniable that comeback albums, especially the ones from artists behind landmark efforts, can either turn out as brilliant as their previous material or be completely unnecessary. Recent examples, My Bloody Valentine’s mbv, D’Angelo’s Black Messiah, Aphex Twin’s Syro, or even The Avalanches’ Wildflower, prove that sometimes it’s worth not rushing and spending extra time polishing your work. But then we have records like Pixies’ Indie Cindy, Giorgio Moroder’s Déjà Vu or Pink Floyd’s The Endless River, which all were misses, rather than hits.
American Football, the band who has recorded arguably one of the most important Midwest emo albums, have teased their return for quite a while, but no one has really thought they would ever release another record. And they did. Was it needed, though? While there has always been curiosity about what would the follow-up to their classic self-titled sound like, the biggest concern was that it would sound exactly like it turned out to sound. Uninspired.
As a whole piece, it’s not particularly awful, but having high expectations, (another) self-titled just fails to deliver. It’s a mix of weak and badly mixed vocals (I’ve Been So Lost for So Long), cringeworthy lyrics (I Need a Drink (or Two or Three)), lifeless production, with occasional highlights (Desire Gets in the Way, Give Me the Gun). This “whatever” of a record maybe could have somehow passed, if this was made by a new band, but knowing what American Football have previously done, their new album was unquestionably not worth waiting 17 years.
2 / 5