American Football- ’No Feeling’ ft Brendan Yates
Now, a quarter of the way through the year, with the new American Football album creeping up on us, one feeling seems ever-present. It’s about to be a fantastic year to be sad!
With countless alt and emo bands announcing projects, one of the shining examples, carrying an aura of excellence at the moment, is scene godfathers American Football, who have released the second single from their highly anticipated 4th album, ‘LP4’. This angelic anthem is woven from dulcet tones and twinkly guitars that have long been a mainstay of the 3 previous albums, and these familiar sounds are now intertwined with a new sense of immediacy and theatre. Everything sounds bigger, fuller, and more pressing, leading to some of the best writing the band has produced so far, and who could forget to mention their shining mystery guest, Brendan Yates of Turnstile.
The track positions itself on the start line as most do, coated in a shimmer of excellence and gliding through the consistently encapsulating atmosphere that they manage to create around their music. From the blend of homely, twinkly guitars to the layered, intoxicating background sounds, this is a song best listened to with closed eyes, an open heart, and very loud headphones. As you begin to pick apart every layer of technical brilliance on display in this track, the melodies of Yates and Kinsella collide at full force, creating a true out-of-body experience for the listener. Yates’s background melody resides above the main vocal in tone but shares centre stage with Kinsella’s chorus as both vocal lines dance in the eternal light that presides within the unforgettable experience that comes with listening to an American Football record. Everything about both these singles, from the production quality to the technical proficiency, seems more stage play than song. It has emotional highs and lows in places where there are no words; the entire band’s feelings are conveyed through the stream of notes pouring out of the listener’s speakers. This drama and emotional weight are then continually amplified by the utterly brilliant vocal performances. ’No Feeling’ proves yet again that this genre will never go away and will remain in the heart beat of every flannel shirt-wearing fan worldwide, and will continue to inspire masses of people to keep creating.
This album, like every other iconic project released by American Football, carries an immediately identifiable sense of mysticism. Music rarely makes people feel this way, so when a band comes along that can convey stories the way films do not, through words but raw notation, it’s important to hold on and not let go. American Football has and always will be a very special project to present and future listeners. There is something about it that just can’t be explained, only enjoyed and ‘LP4’ is going to be exactly that, so for God’s sake, will someone please just hire them to make a soundtrack already? ‘LP4’ is out everywhere from the first of May and is set to be accompanied by an unmissable world tour; the experience of seeing them live is transcendental and truly unmissable, so grab them while you can, just try not to become so at peace with yourself that you fall asleep mid-set.
Words by Josh Pook
