Ask any fan of music from the Midwest and they‰’ve probably spent a fair amount of their life worshipping the Kinsella brothers. Through each chapter of a new band, the two brothers essentially wrote the book on emo. Although an unfortunate fact, I must stop here to point out that by emo, I mean bands like Jawbreaker, Rites of Spring and Sunny Day Real Estate, not the term that MTV slapped onto every alt-rock act in the early ‰00s. The genre emphasized a more melodic instrumentation approach and lyrics that sound like they were lifted out of a diary.

American Football removed much of the angst that the genre was born with in its post-hardcore and punk roots and instead swapped in soft, sparkling melody and squeaky-clean guitar. To keep things interesting, songs were composed in quirky tunings and wrapped in atypical time signatures. This combination made for a sound that is immediately identifiable and expressively pretty with its own vocabulary.

All you need to do is look at the track list to get a feel for the emotional content on the album. Song titles like “Never Meant,‰” “I‰’ll See You When We‰’re Both Not So Emotional,‰” and “The Summer Ends‰” take no effort to hide the fact that Mike Kinsella isn‰’t the cheeriest guy in the world. While the lyrics may initially sound over-dramatic, the atmosphere is able to lull you into accepting the overt emotions after some time with the album. There are some real gems hidden throughout as well, such as the slight change from “But that‰’s life, so social‰” to “But that‰’s life, so so-so‰” on “Stay Home,‰” as well as “You can‰’t miss what you forget‰” on the album‰’s opener.

There are melancholy horns sprinkled throughout and the album‰’s production feels crisp and clean. All of these elements make a cocktail that‰’s perfect for the beginnings of fall weather and reminiscing about all those high school football games with those girls who never noticed you.