In celebration of the 25th anniversary of their debut album, American Football re-released their debut albums, except each song was covered by different artists. 

American football is an emo/indie rock band that released their debut album in 1999. The Urbana, Illinois based band pulls influences from artists like Elliot Smith, Slowdive, The Smiths, and My Bloody Valentine.

The album starts with “Never Meant” covered by Iron and Wine. Iron and Wine is known for their indie folk style. Some might know them from their hit song “Flightless Bird, American Mouth.”

When comparing the 2 songs, they are quite different, with Iron and Wine leaning more heavily into the folk style with the acoustic guitar. 

Personally, I prefer the original song because I enjoyed the electric guitar to the acoustic. To be fair, this song is their most popular with 62 million streams on spotify, so it was going to be hard to beat. 

The second song on the album was “The Summer’s End,” which is actually their second most popular song. This song was covered by a smaller artist, Blondshell. 

I had never heard of Blondshell, and she only released her first song in 2022, her music leaning into the indie and grunge style. 

Near the end of the song, the original has an instrumental break, and Blondshell follows suit, however she adds a really impressive electric guitar solo. 

I prefer Blondshell’s cover because, other than the fact that the guitar solo was well done, I also thought her harmonies, soft and airy vocals were surprisingly well suited for the song when considering how different it is from the original. 

The fourth song is “For Sure” and is covered by Ethel Cain. Her music falls into the indie rock genre as well, but definitely also gothic and folk. This song is one of American Football’s slower songs, introducing a very nice trumpet about halfway through that fits very well.Ethel takes this song and really makes it her own with her unique vocals. Her voice is haunting, portraying the emotions of heartbreak that the song is trying to convey very well.

I am a bit biased, considering that Ethel Cain is one of my favorite artists of all time, I definitely preferred her version over the original. With her version, instead of her singing over the music, it feels like the voice and the music are flowing together as one, creating this atmosphere that perfectly portrays this song’s lyrics. 

The fifth song is “You Know I Should Be Leaving Soon”, covered by Yvette Young. She is one of the smaller artists on this album, her genre bending style being called instrumental/math-rock. 

Both songs sound very similar, however, Yvette’s version does have some effects that make the instrumentals a bit more echoey and distant.For this song, I think that I prefer Yvette’s version because that distant feeling also makes the song feel more nostalgic and it fits well with the overarching themes of the album as a whole. 

The next song is “I’ll See You When, We’re Both Not So Emotional”, and is covered by M.A.G.S., whose music falls in the alternative and indie genres. 

M.A.G.S.’s cover takes longer to start off, but in that time has some electric guitar going. The original song also has a faster tempo than the cover.

My favorite has to be the cover, M.A.G.S.’s vocals really took me by surprise, suiting the song so well and I’d say better than the original. Similarly to Ethel Cain’s cover, his voice seems to be flowing along with the music. 

The final song on the album is “The One With The Wurlitzer,” and is covered by John McEntire who, unlike the other artists in this album, makes dance and electronic music.From the start, this is very clear in the way that the song is heavily produced with a lot of keyboard and effects over everything, whereas the original has some keyboard but is more centered around the guitar.I prefer the original version because I liked how relaxed it was and the touch of the trumpet, and I do not love electronic music either.

It’s important to go back and listen to these kinds of albums because it helps us better understand where certain genres came from, and maybe even see where music could be going. 

Maybe next time you’re trying to find something to listen to, ask a dad, an uncle, and older brother what their favorite music was when they were younger and give it a try.