“And the autumn night… when we realized… we were falling out of love.” Sometimes it’s
nice to listen to some midwest Emo and cry your sad little eyes out. American Football’s
self-titled 1999 release is the perfect album for that. A mix of math rock guitars with unique time signatures
and melodramatic Emo lyrics. This album is about one breakup that the singer Mike Kinsella
experienced with his college girlfriend. It’s about them trying to make it work but knowing that it
would end when college is done.
First of all, you can’t talk about American Football without mentioning the song Never
Meant. The guitar riff is beautifully put together. The guitar work on this whole album is
immaculate. The lyrics on this song are extremely genuine and make this track a real tear jerker.
It’s about the aforementioned relationship coming to an end, and him wanting to just pretend
that he never felt the way he did about this girl, because it hurts too much to think about it.
“‘Cause you can’t miss the things you forget,” is one of the saddest lines, saying he will miss her
but he can’t handle the pain of losing her to the point where he would rather just forget about it
altogether.
My personal favorite song; Honestly? speaks on how he feels so confused about the
relationship because he feels as though neither party did anything wrong to make it come to an
end, but its just the wrong time and place for both of them. But this doesn’t make the splitting up
any easier to bear. He says, “All the who’s are there, but the why’s are unclear.” He knows that
the end is soon, but doesn’t really feel closure. He is left just confused, because he knows why
it is ending but also doesn’t at the same time.
In conclusion, this album is an emotional roller coaster. Even the instrumentals could
bring tears to your eye. This album is a 7/10, a depressive episode wrapped up in a pretty
sounding cloak of sprightly musici