Listen to American Football’s seven-minute cover of Mazzy Star’s ‘Fade Into You’
American Football have joined the likes of Miley Cyrus, Inhaler, Perfume Genius and Kelly Clarkson as the latest act to cover Mazzy Star’s 1993 classic ‘Fade Into You’.
The song initially appeared on Mazzy Star’s second album, ‘So Tonight That I Might See’, and was issued as a single in April of 1994. American Football’s cover hones in on the track’s dreaminess, twining gentle, honeyed acoustic plucks with swelling atmospherics and subtle, yet poignant horns. It also features guest vocals from LA-based folk artist Miya Folick.
Check out American Football’s cover of ‘Fade Into You’ below:
Alongside their Mazzy Star cover, American Football shared an entirely new song titled ‘Rare Symmetry’. It’s described by their label, Polyvinyl, as an extension of the musical style the band explored on their 2019 self-titled album. It slots beautifully alongside ‘Fade Into You’ as a breezy slow-burner driven by kaleidoscopic fingerpicking, math-y drums and flourishes of vibraphone.
“Poor Jane Doe,” frontman Mike Kinsella sings wistfully on the song’s chorus. “You don’t know who you are / But strangers blush when you walk by / As if their blood needs to see you / As much as I do.”
Have a listen to ‘Rare Symmetry’ below:
In addition to its streaming release, ‘Rare Symmetry’ (and ‘Fade Into You’) will be pressed on a limited 10-inch vinyl, set to ship in June. Pre-orders for the record are available now from Polyvinyl.
‘Rare Symmetry’ comes as the band’s first original track since founding drummer and trumpeter Steve Lamos left earlier in the year. “After many years with American Football, my life situation has changed,” he wrote at the time. “Unfortunately, I now need to move on from the band.”
Lamos performed on American Football’s aforementioned 2019 album, but it’s unclear whether his contributions made it to the new release. NME gave that album, highlighted by the Hayley Williams-featuring single ‘Uncomfortably Numb’, a four-star review. In it, writer Tom Connick praised the eight-track LP as “a record both classic in intonation and future-facing in intent”.
“As emo’s edges continue to fray, nestling amongst hip-hop and electronica in the popular consciousness, American Football remain the band best-versed in its traditional sensibilities,” Connick continued. “No longer a band of nostalgia bangers, American Football are back at the top of the pile.”
Last April, the band made waves for their headline performance at a virtual festival hosted in Minecraft, and for their timely, split-screen reprise performance of 1999’s ‘Stay Home’.
