Review Summary: Various Artists is my favorite band
Ah yes… Every year, as the scorching heat of summer morphs into that oh-so-recognizable chilly crispness of autumn, our thoughts invariably turn to American Football. That most sublime of sports, the perfect fusion of the primitive bloodlust we inherited from the coliseum and the chess match strategy which appeals to our intellectual side. Oh wait, wrong notes! I meant American Football, the band. Indeed, this particular time of year feels equally connected to both uses of that phrase.
I guess my seasonal attachment has less to do with the band, per se, and more to do with the album. Yeah, you know the one, the twilit house on its cover pumping out a warming glow as it delivers a precious nine-song compendium of every earnest youthful feeling. Myself, I’m not sure I’d ever heard the record in question before the age of twenty-five, but man does it ever bring me back evermore to the mindset of “back-to-school”. You know the drill, that sprawling stretch of endless summer days had somehow, well,
ended, and now it was back to the grind of the school year. But hey, it wasn’t so bad - after all, it was interesting to see all the other kids again, and every year, things are a little different, but also kinda the same. It was comforting, really, that familiar cycle of the school year grounding you in a routine. Not something you fully appreciate until you’ve had a few years of “real adulthood” to grind you down into an endlessly repeating repetition of days, with little distinction between seasons without a whole lot more effort to keep up.
Anyway, in the abstract, Mike Kinsella’s lyrical concerns on
American Football should be cringeworthy to me - juvenile and rather trite as they are. But that’s kinda the magic too, given they’re entrenched in the kind of musical arrangements designed to drench each song in head-to-toe sonic nostalgia. Those songs are simply
really good, mostly in a way which is hard to pin down but feels rather self-evident. To name a few, there’s a reason “Never Meant” is regarded as the classic of emo classics, “Stay Home” has atmosphere for days, and “The One With The Wurlitzer” doesn’t need any words to deliver the kind of profundity most acts would kill for.
That’s a whole lot of waxing about a record I’m (technically) not writing about, but it feels necessary to lay the groundwork - a reference point for what undergirds the significance of an album which (still) means a lot to me, and apparently a bunch of other people as well. Some of those “other people” are fairly big name artists, evidently, given they were willing to lend their time and effort to the
American Football (Covers) project. For those not in the know, 2024 marks a quarter-century since the release of the seminal first American Football LP, and to mark the occasion, the band put together a tribute with each of the nine songs being covered by a different artist (or, in one case, two artists collaborating).
The diversity of these involved acts gives a hint to the influence of
American Football, or at least the wide-ranging extent of its appeal. They include pensive folksters (Iron & Wine), practitioners of slowcore for a new generation who write concept albums ending in cannibalism (Ethel Cain), brooding alt-rockers (Manchester Orchestra), and electronic-tinged post-rockers (John McEntire), among others.
As a premise, this kind of cover album is a rather nifty idea, but they have some inherent limitations. It’s hard to make a fully cohesive record given the input of so many different contributors, and, even if it does, against all odds, come together, it’s unlikely to stand up to the original effort, which tends to be a classic given it’s receiving this laudatory treatment. For me, then, my main curiosity for this project was to hear some interesting cover versions. My main gripe with covers is that, far too often, the artist plays too close to the original. I like innovative takes on the material, both because they give the new version a more substantial reason to exist, but also because they tend to illustrate the “good bones” of the song itself, revealing given the track can worthily display its merit in multiple (completely different) presentations. In the case of
American Football (Covers), the degree to which these versions differ from the originals varies widely, but there’s a fair amount of interesting takes. Mission accomplished.
I can see individual listener’s favorite tracks here varying widely, but for me, Blondshell’s rendition of “The Summer Ends” truly stands out - a feeling of hazed-out melancholia which transitions into a soaring ripper. Novo Amor and Lowslimmer’s pastoral portrayal of “Honestly” is lovely as well, while Ethel Cain’s expansive, sprawling “For Sure” also impresses. The album ends on a high note with John McEntire’s bouncy and energetic rendition of “The One With The Wurlitzer”. As a whole,
American Football (Covers) doesn’t truly transcend the weaknesses of its format, but it’s well worth some listens from fellow gridiron fans. As the lovingly nostalgic album cover suggests, there’s room for more artists’ takes in that well-worn house. The more the merrier...
