In whatever wave of emo we're experiencing now, we've reached a fever pitch of bands that rely too heavily on the '90s sound — think Mineral, American Football, Braid — that preceded them. It's instinctual to start from our mentors, but important to move forward. That can be seen in recent experiments from Dikembe, Tigers Jaw and Foxing, as all three move in wildly different directions. But there's still something to be said for diligently working within the form, picking apart its pieces and reassembling the chord progressions, production styles and, yes, the emotions. Houston's Football, etc. has always been thoughtful about its backward glance, and wrenches something vulnerable out of a song like "Sunday" from its upcoming EP, Disappear.
Once a vehicle for guitarist Lindsay Minton's songs, Football, etc.'s transition to a cohesive band came with 2013's excellent Audible, due in part to a rhythm section that gave the material body. On the organ-based "Sunday," Mercy Harper's bass is thick and fluid, driven by steady drummer Daniel Hawkins, who knows when to punctuate the beat and when to scale way back. It doesn't hurt that J. Robbins recorded the EP — he's an engineer and producer who can pull out the nuance of a guitar tone or a drum kick and make it ring.
"Sunday" comes from a place of fear that shuts out the world, but Minton's voice is clear and strong either because of or in spite of the song's theme. Structured as two verses and a coda, it's the second verse where Minton carries the weight of the world in her voice, dropping the word "sleep" like it's something she's forgotten, or deadpanning "my limbs are not there" with a flatness that's given up. But the track's silver lining is taking comfort in how we sometimes need to remove ourselves — disappear — from pain in order to be renewed.
Disappear comes out March 17 on Count Your Lucky Stars and strictly no capital letters.
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