Definitely a victim of a few break ups in his time, Kinsella nicely recreates some of the feelings left on the confusion of teenage romance. The guitar playing is beautiful with the interweaving of parts played by Kinsella and Steve Holmes. Sounding like a mix of The Edge and Johnny Marr, the cleanly picked notes swirl wonderfully between each other and slide smoothly across some of the most refreshingly played, almost jazz-like drumming I've heard in a long while courtesy of Steve Lamos. Taking full advantage of the studio environment, bass lines and overlapping vocal tracks are added along with strong trumpet playing from Lamos on a few tracks. This record actually brings to mind the Smiths on more than one occasion with its plaintive lyrics and smooth moving yet passionate musicianship.
Nothing here is original yet it all sounds very new and invigorating.
American Football doesn't merely get by with interesting sounding parts but by placing those parts together and creating atmosphere and mood. The songwriting here is top notch and although the songs aren't highly produced, a great deal of care was taken into the final product. I can definitely see this album showing up on a few top ten lists by year's end. While in former outfits Cap'n Jazz and Joan of Arc , Mike Kinsella had quite a bit of songwriting muscle and his vision has always been towards a cleaner pop sound. With his brother Tim announcing that Joan of Arc will be him plus friends instead of a full time band, this leaves Mike with more freedom and time to advance his ideas.