American Football - American Football (October 21, 2016) Album • Page 33

I think the opener is the best track on here by far and after that I'd say I Need a Drink probably but I enjoy all of the tracks at this point (Born to Lose had to grow on me)

 

I think tracks 2 and 3 are my favorite. "You can't just forget all the other lives you lived" hit me really really hard.

 

oh please do enlighten us

 

You could just read the thread

 

listened to this. it was okay. unfortunately it has to compete with its predecessor, but i liked it a lot more than i thought it would, maybe because i wasn't expecting it to be anywhere near LP1. There's nothing here that I dislike (save maybe the way he sings the opening lines of Desire Gets In The Way) but what I liked about the first LP was the nontraditional song structures, how when I was younger I found what I heard interesting because I had never heard anything that weird before. I was fifteen and this was maybe five years ago, but it was my first knowing intro into weird time signatures and guitars doing weird things that I didn't know they were allowed to do in songs and the long drawn out parts with no vocals. I liked how it was pleasant on a surface listen but still challenging to like, and then love. And this was just like, okay, it was good, but I don't feel like it elicits that same feeling of being really interesting sounding, and I think a part of that is the more traditional song structures. Like, we've had tons of dudes with alternately tuned guitars and scratchy vocals try and ape AF the last six or so years, but not a ton of them delved into actually structuring songs super differently, and I guess it's kind of disappointing that neither did they. On the other hand, the songs themselves on their own merit are pretty good, but that's kinda it. maybe I'll end up liking them more than I do now.

mm maybe exception to pretty good are Desire Gets In The Way and I think it was Born To Lose and Give Me the Gun I was lukewarm on. Closer to just okay...Desire's bouncy quality feels really out of place and I think that ones my least favorite

 

this is just as good as LP1 if you take nostalgia out of it - the production is better the music doesn't meander as much and the vocals and lyrics are far better (even though I still prefer the vocal delivery from LP1).

 

exactly - lyrically this is more honest and raw than an Owen record and a typical Owen song seems to exist in more space than the songs on this record, which is fine.

 

I'm pretty happy with this album. I know people will compare it to LP1 but I'm not. It's so many years later that you can't really make that comparison.

The way I look at it is it's an Owen album but different.

 

You nailed it on the head bud. 17 years is so long between albums to compare them isn't really a thing. LP2 is beautiful and sounds AMAZING through headphones.

 

I really enjoy this. Just like I really enjoyed the first one. Good instrumentation and I enjoy the melodies. I'm not a huge lyric guy so I don't pay to close to what he is actually saying.

 

I completely agree. LP1 will always have the nostalgia factor, but putting that aside, LP2 matches up to it. It's quite a different album but in a great way.

 

Am I crazy if all I can think about listening to this album is how good these songs would sound with Evan Weiss singing them?

 

honestly to me this album is just more of the same from them. after such a long time, its not enough for me. too many other bands have filled the void they left. not in terms of sound i just mean that, compared to a lot of the emo from the last decade or so, especially these past five years, this doesnt stand above the pack.

 

I never listened to the debut album, so for me this new album is very new territory for me and I adore it.

The instrumentation is absolutely gorgeous.

It's also funny how much more the singles stand out in the context of the album. I wasn't that interested in checking this out based off the singles, but as soon as "Where Are We Now?" hit the chorus I was hooked.

 

I def could hear some into it over it on this, standards felt very American football Owen influenced with some of the guitar work

 

Idk, given their very unique situation and history, I did not expect at all for them to put out anything more than a carbon copy of LP1. In fact I'm kinda impressed that after 17 years they were able to recreate it as well as they did haha.

 

One of my favorite quotes I heard about this album is how Steve Holmes basically stopped playing guitar after the band ended and didn't pick it up until they did the reunion so basically his playing is still stuck in 1999.

 

lol fantastic

 

I feel like I want to like this more than I actually do...

 

Came here to say pretty much this exact post

 

this sounds exactly like one of the plethora of bands that listed af as their main influence in 2011

 

I swore I heard an Algernon riff in one of these songs

 

yup exactly

 

as a 30-something going through a crisis, I can attest to this albums powerful essence - I say this is as sincere as art can get, and a beautiful object - thoughtful, sincereley crafted and a soothing balm for a troubled heart/mind

I am thankful for this appearing in this moment of my life and these gents continue to be an important force in my life - a possitive life affirming force

 

Always so weird to see other people dictating how "nostalgia" determines individual relationships to albums