Limited 180gm Light Blue vinyl LP pressing, includes digital download. American Football s original triumph, on their 1999 self-titled debut, was to reunite two shy siblings: emo and post-rock. It was a pioneering album where lyrical clarity was obscured and complicated by the stealth musical textures surrounding it. Like Slint s Spiderland, or Codeine s The White Birch, even Talk Talk s Laughing Stock, American Football asked far more questions than it cared to answer. But there wasn t a band around anymore to explain it, anyway. The three young men who made the album – Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, and Steve Lamos – split up pretty much on it s release. 15 years later, American Football reunited (now as a four-piece, with the addition of Nate Kinsella). They played far larger shows than in their original incarnation and recorded their long-anticipated second album, 2016 s American Football (LP2). The release was widely praised, but the band members still felt like their best work was yet to come.