Footballhead deliver a rousing alt-rock record with “Before I Die”
Footballhead from Chicago follow up their debut album with a clean, hard-hitting mini-album: “Before I Die”.
Stream: “Before I Die” – Footballhead
JJust five months after their excellent debut album, Chicago’s Footballhead are back with a mini-album Before I die.
On their new release, the five-piece band deals with depression, loss and the confusion of young adulthood, delivering some of the catchiest alt-rock songs Tiny Engines has to offer.
Throughout the album, the band doesn’t shy away from catchy clean vocals and swelling power chords. Singer Ryan Nolen shines with a delightful freshness on many of the tracks. While the band adapts with sparkling riffs on slower songs like the title track or groovy post-emo on a track like “Crushing Me,” his vocals round out the mix with a certain clean quality that straddles the line between pop-punk and indie rock.
Released not long after their debut album, Before I die shows the range of the band excellently. While pop-punk seems to be the best umbrella term for the group, songs like “Your Ghost” fluctuated brilliantly between intense hardcore riffs and sparkling arpeggios. The quiet-loud range is perhaps best shown in the album’s standout track “All for What?” After repeating the chorus of the song “Why so tired now?” Nolen lets out a primal scream a few times as the guitars swell behind him. It’s pounding and feels more like a Terror song than a Mayday Parade track.
Although the title heralds mortality, Before I die is ultimately a record about finding one’s place in the world. Nolen makes this mission clear in the opening song, “My Direction.” Just as the band tries on different musical hats during the process, the search and sound of the record are perhaps best summed up in the closing track, “In Motion.” Mixing acoustic verses with swelling, mid-tempo hard rock choruses, Nolen sings about believing in himself during the process.
Give me reason to believe it’s worth completing
I am completely lost in its meaning
Looks like I might be misinterpreting it
Will it get better?
Everything I wonder
Stress I subject myself to
Make it familiar
Sleep it all off so I’m healthy
In the short time since the release of Think about everythingFootballhead also sound much clearer and tighter on the mini-album, which is only 8 minutes shorter than their debut album.
If these songs had been released 15 or 20 years earlier, it is very likely that they would be considered classics of the scene. Considering how quickly the band Before I die After her debut album, it will be exciting to see what her next step will be.
— —
:: stream/buy Before I die Here ::
— — — —
Connect with Footballhead on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Discover new music in Atwood Magazine
© Morgan Paige
