Based on the circumstances after American Football’s last record, LP3, it would easy to understand why the band would need a solid seven years to reset before today’s release of LP4. The previous album came out in March of 2019, and when American Football were gearing up for a break after touring in support of the record, the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drummer Steve Lamos quit the band in July of 2021 due to personal reasons, while the rest of the band tried to get writing done via Zoom sessions, bearing little fruit. Around that same time, Mike and Nate Kinsella were focusing on their side project, Lies, where they met up with producer Sonny DiPerri. Encouraged by that partnership, American Football would regroup, Lamos rejoined in 2023, and the band would work with DiPerri on LP4. It’s a record that grapples with demons like loss, shame, divorce, and self-loathing in a lyrically heavy package. American Football once again prove why they’re one of the best artists to make music that is simultaneously moody, lyrically deep, and filled with solid musicianship.

A reunion is a tricky thing to get right. When a widely adored band returns after a long time away, there’s a daunting amount of room for disappointment. Some bands try to recapture the lightning they managed to bottle two decades ago and end up sounding like shambling zombies of their former selves, unable – as anyone is – to return in their middle age to being the people they were in their youth. Others don’t concern themselves with new music at all and simply play the old songs to the people who want to hear them with only half the energy and sincerity it would take to make them worth the ticket price. Emo has seen examples of both models in the past half-decade, as the genre’s revival sparked a renewed interest in its golden-era bands. But it’s also seen a third model. A select few groups have found a sweet spot of honesty and genuineness in who they are now, combined with a connection to and awareness of who they were twenty years ago. It’s in this sweet spot that a band manages to hang on to their soul.

As reunited emo bands go, American Football are anomalous in that their second time around has by now lasted longer than their first. All the mythos and reverence that came to surround the band in the time that they were gone was built in only three years and one record together. It puts them in a unique position, that of being on only their third album 22 years after they formed; they’re a band still exploring and expanding their sound, yet with the maturity that comes from age and experience.

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