American Football (studio album) by American Football

American Football by American Football
Year: 1999
Overall rank: 460th   Overall chart historyOverall chart history
Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 470 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution   Average rating historyAverage rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 10 albums of 1999 (10th)
Award Top 100 albums of the 1990s (84th)
Award Top 500 albums of all time (460th)
Product Details
Availability

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American Football - American Football (LP3) 2xLP Vinyl Record
Condition: New


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American Football - American Football (Early Bird Green & Yellow Deluxe Vinyl)
Condition: Used


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American Football - American Football (Deluxe Edition) (2xLP, Red) Vinyl Record
Condition: New


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American Football bestography

American Football is ranked as the best album by American Football.

American Football album bestography « Higher ranked This album (460th) Lower ranked (5,049th) »
-American FootballAmerican Football (2019)

Upcoming concerts

Sep
27
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20:00
American Football - 25th Anniversary LP1 Shows
Thalia Hall, Chicago, United States. United States
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Sep
28
Sat
20:00
American Football - 25th Anniversary LP1 Shows
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Oct
25
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20:00
American Football
Howard Theatre, Washington D.C., United States. United States
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American Football track list

  Track ratingsTrack ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 84 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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American Football rankings

American Football collection

American Football ratings

Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 470 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 470 ratings for this album.

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90/100
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39 hours ago Cardboardfolder  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 2,92686/100
 
75/100
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4 days ago JPin8497  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 81570/100
 
65/100
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03/04/2024 23:27 sacreyoubert  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 1,25769/100
 
65/100
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02/12/2024 23:33 loudquiettime  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 8371/100
 
85/100
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02/05/2024 17:48 CellarDoor  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 6,63180/100

Rating metrics: Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 80.0/100, a mean average of 78.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.6.

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American Football comments

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Rating:  
85/100
From 06/08/2023 18:12
Amazing instrumentals that on there own would be great but then the performance on top of that is equally as good in way that perfectly balances each other.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 05/12/2023 21:47
Fui completamente envolvido pelo álbum! Gratíssima surpresa!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 01/29/2023 01:11
An emotional listen that is intelligent in its composition and creates a soothing but rich experience for the listener. The whole album is expressive and filled with personality which made it such an easy record to fall in love with. The instrumentals really stand out on this release with them all combining to create this atmosphere which is so easy to get lost in. Every time I put this record on I get swept away by the music and just admire the genius on display. Instrumentally, it is diverse and beautifully performed by all members of the group. They are so delicate and smooth with the way they play that they convey emotion to us so well and so powerfully that we are easily overwhelmed by it. They are just phenomenal all the way through and I think the quality of instrumentation on here goes extremely under appreciated. Furthermore, the vocal is perfect for the style they are going for and in my opinion is one of the most important pieces of bringing this whole album together. The record feels extremely cohesive as the music is focused with hardly a second wasted which means there is no filler on this album at all. Finally, the lyrics are rich and give us loads to explore when you come back to revisit this record which you will do as it is that good. Overall, in terms of atmosphere, style and quality it is one of the greatest albums ever recorded and it deserves to be appreciated for how brilliant it is.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 07/28/2020 01:49
Who new math rock could be this emotional? The chime-like guitars are infectious, I can't get enough of them. The drumming is great as well. The only real complaint I have is the vocals, they don't really sound all that great sometimes, especially when they're doubled up.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 04/08/2020 17:28
If it weren't for the harsh vocals, i could really love this. The drums are amazing though (both performance and sound).
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 04/03/2019 18:53
American Football is one of the pioneers of emo and math rock. American Football is an honest music, touching with sincerity, pure and uncompromising. A brilliant and bright guitar sound, on which are added simple words and unpretentious ... This sincerity is felt throughout the album. The changeable and unstable metric illustrates the human side of the work, a kind of constant and touching imperfection, an impression of never being able to feel fully reassured but to be at the same time immersed in a serene and dreamy state. The original tunings of the guitars also reflect a desire to reveal themselves completely, to show an authentic facet of the divergences characteristic of human nature: no, the emotion is not monochrome at American Football, it is calm and eventful, passionate and soothed . Know that this album deserves to be tamed, both from a musical and a textual point of view, because emotion and reflection are there. For sure ...
"Let's pretend everything and anything, between you and me, was never meant ..."

9/10

Best track: "Honestly?"
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 02/22/2019 17:09
Returned to this album recently and can't stop listening to it.

I wish I could delete my earlier comment, the regrets are killing me.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 04/28/2018 06:54
'American Football' by American Football BEA ranked 470 (April 2018)

A journey such as I'm on to listen to the BEA top 500 (twice) was always going to take me to musical places I would never have imagined and American Football is a great point in case

To understand American Football you need to appreciate their style of music . They are exponents of what is referred to a Math Rock a gene of music characterised by non-standard time signatures such as 7/8 , 11/8 or 13/8 producing a rhythmic complexity that is counter intuitive to rocks standard 4/4 . I explained it to a friend as "Rock Free-form Jazz Like " . And here in lies why there is such polarising opinions about this group/album . On first listen the listener is left confused with the free form irregular nature of the content , but repeat listens reveals a layered depth and musical skill not initially appreciated . I firmly believe many listeners dismiss this album after 1 or 2 listens , where as the enlightened ones go back and back and fully peal back the onion layers to reveal an inner beauty within this album

On a side note these boys really need to use some imagination with their release tiles , we have

1998: 'American Football' EP
1999: 'American Football' ( debut album)
2016: 'American Football' (follow up album)

ANYTHING would be a better title than 'American Football'
How about 'Free Form Rock In 11/8 ' ? or 'OK Maths' ?

Finally the Deluxe Version is pretty much garbage , you get 10 additional tracks all of which are extremely poor quality live , boom box recorded or demo quality tracks. If your a super fan check it out other wise stick to the original 9 track release

Polarising but good

65/100
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (2 helpful | 3 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 04/07/2018 07:03
Ayyyyy! I finally GOT it! This album has seemed so dumb for me to me for so long. Dry, repetitive, bland, you name a criticism that has been stated below and I have had that opinion. But after just coming back to it again and again periodically, it finaly clicked, as all good albums do. There is something really seductive in the layered guitars and strangely static songwriting. The songs don't really go anywhere at all, and it can be hard to understand why at first. But I eventually realized that this album is just the musical distillation of small town life. The cover, the backstory, etc all point toward it, but even structure wise, it feels meandering and aimless, waiting for something to happen. But nothing ever does, and things are always the same, and yet you can't help but love your little nondescript cornfield town.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Talk Talk's later works and this album have both made their genius apparent to me around the same time. Though they are different in many ways, they both have a kind of featurelessness to them, as described a but above. They are unstructured and meandering, and if you are not listening attentively, it feels like the same thing over and over. But just as there is beauty in the use of silence by Talk Talk, there is beauty in the use of repetition by American Football.

80/100
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (8 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 03/15/2018 00:29
Very soothing. Probably gonna listen to it again, but I wish I could see why so many people love it that much. I think I'm missing something.

Favorite song: Never Meant
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

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Best Albums of 1999
1. Ágætis Byrjun by Sigur Rós
2. The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
3. Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers
4. 98.12.28 男達の別れ [98.12.28 Otokotachi No Wakare] by フィッシュマンズ [Fishmans]
5. 13 by Blur
6. Emergency & I by The Dismemberment Plan
7. Summerteeth by Wilco
8. Keep It Like A Secret by Built To Spill
9. 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields
10. American Football by American Football
11. When The Pawn... by Fiona Apple
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14. The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails
15. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory by Dream Theater
16. Slow Riot For New Zerø Kanada by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
17. The Slim Shady LP by Eminem
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19. Mule Variations by Tom Waits
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