Artist: American Authors
Album: American Authors EP
Genre: Alternative/ Indie Rock
If you can only buy one song buy: Believers
Rating: A
Raise your hand if you went to the movies sometime in the past two weeks. If you did, chances are you saw a trailer for Delivery Man. While the preview gave off the impression that this film will be dragged down by the fact that it can’t decide whether it wants to be a crappy comedy or a crappy uplifting drama, one part of the movie caught my attention: the song that played in the background. It was catchy and happy and had a banjo and it made me wish Vince Vaughn would shut up about his 500 kids or whatever and let us listen to the music (I have really low expectations for Delivery Man).
Since I’m a rebel and don’t turn my phone off during movies, I shazamed it and found out that the song was Best Day of My Life by a band called American Authors. I bought the song immediately, but procrastinated making the $4 or so purchase of the whole album until recently (in the time since then I’ve probably spent three times that on burritos from T-Bell and toilet paper from the resulting stomach problems caused by eating a diet consisting entirely of sketchy taco meat, but I digress). Well I finally changed out of my dress and bought the dang thing, and I’m really glad I did. Because American Authors EP is definitely one of my favorite releases of the year.
Perhaps the best part of American Authors EP is that Best Day of My Life isn’t even the best song on the five song track list. That honor goes to Believers, the opener. Believers is similar in basic structure to Best Day of My Life: both feature a pretty quick tempo, fast pounding drums, and sprinkles of electric guitar and banjo. But if Best Day of My Life makes you feel happy, Believers makes you feel downright giddy. I think this minor distinction comes from the delivery of the lyrics. Lead singer Zachary Barnett really pushes the pace on Believers, keeping the gas pedal down for the majority of the song, while Best Day of My Life is a touch slower and has interruptions of the trademark ooo-oooooo-ooo chant (you know what I’m talking about).
Another cool part I liked was the aforementioned banjos, played by James Adam Shelley. It’s an unquestionable fact that banjos are sweet and that playing one instantly makes you cooler. Just look at Justin Merriman. Hours of plucking away at the strings of his banjo has given Merriman the greatest hair at Grand Haven High School, while transforming him into some sort of incredibly well kempt Huckleberry Finn. But seriously, I really like the way American Authors uses their banjos. They use them to supplement other instruments for the most part, but really let them shine for certain parts of songs. Luck is a good example of this. The banjos drop in during the first and second verses, then give up their place to the electric guitar for the chorus. They also tend to only use the banjo as a companion to the drums. When the drums are really going off, so is the banjo. Other bands that utilize a banjo tend to omit drums during the banjo portions. While this does give songs a more folksy feel, it also sounds like you’re in the middle of Kentucky and that you have way too many teeth to qualify to listen to the track. It’s a really different sound and I like it.
However, banjos aren’t the real shining star, as every song on the EP is truly driven by the vocals. Barnett does an awesome job and really shows some skill. He can sing smooth like on Home, or like a new age grunge rocker on Best Day of My Life, or a late 80’s punk on Hit It. He also often harmonizes with or sings over his other band mates, which gives songs a really varied and layered feel and helps keep things interesting.
Ok I’m gushing. So what don’t I like? Well this is really nitpicking, and should no way make you not buy this sick set of songs, but at the core of every song lies the same the basic structure. You tend to get this with shorter EPs, since there’s not that many songs for variation. Really this only applies to Believers and Best Day of My Life, but even they don’t sound that similar. That’s one of my surprises of this album, that the songs managed to stay varied up. They didn’t get tiring to listen to at all. In fact I managed to listen to this album four times right in a row while writing this review and didn’t feel the need to shut it off. It’s that good.
Seriously, why are you still here? Go buy American Authors EP right now. Don’t even pirate it. It takes longer to do that and you definitely don’t want to wait to listen to this one.