Time for another confession: I never listened to American Football until this year.

Not that I haven’t heard their name–one of the older guys from my youth group moved to Nashville and when he came back, he had a shaggy moptop and wouldn’t shut up about this band.

And it’s not like I haven’t heard elements of their sound transcend bands from every side of the wide umbrella that is now called “emo.” Twothirtyeight has the same twinkling guitars. Taking Back Sunday has the same emotive hooks (set to about twice the speed). Modest Mouse has the same extended instrumental sections. Appleseed Cast basically used these songs as blueprints.

And now that I’ve heard this album with my own ears, I understand what that dude was talking about.