Midwest Emo band American Football released their third album conveniently titled “American Football” or “LP3” on March 22, 2019. The band announced this release in December of 2018 along with the featured artists on the album such as Hayley Williams of Paramore, and it quickly became one of the most awaited albums of the year.
After its release it was met with great reviews from publications like Metacritic and Pitchfork. Metacritic gave the album an 80 out of 100, and Pitchfork gave it a very generous eight point one out of ten.
This album does a great job at playing into and evolving the American Football sound that they had established in their prior albums. What I think this album does better than those is the atmosphere it sets up. “Silhouettes,” the first song on the album, starts off with a very long dream-esque percussive build up using bells and a vibraphone. This album was produced by Jason Cupp, who did a great job at aesthetic of the album.
My personal favorite song off of this album is “Uncomfortably Numb” featuring Hayley Williams. This song has a very special place in my heart because of how I found it and who I associate it with, but beyond that, it is also just a very good song.
Another song I’d like to highlight is “Heir Apparent.” This song does a masterful job at commenting on human nature while also keeping the feel good and flow-y vibe of the album. For example, the motif in the chorus is the phrase “I’m unapologetically sorry for everything.” This is also one of those songs that anyone could turn on regardless of their taste and enjoy it.
The cover for this album is the first not to feature the iconic house, which has been a key part of their identity since their wildly successful first album also titled “American Football.”
Personally, I think the art they went with for this album is incredibly fitting. It is a foggy and slightly mountainous landscape that has a light blue and pink hue to it which is exactly how I would describe the vibe of this album.
This album is definitely the best of their discography. The best description of it I can give is that it feels like sitting in a field of grass on a warm spring day. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a feel-good album to help them get through tough times.