Footballhead
Weight of the Truth
TINY ENGINES
Time, as Einstein proved, is relative. The explanation for time dilation is obviously incredibly scientific and difficult to comprehend, but perhaps one good (if incredibly unscientific) way of demonstrating that is through music. Because not only can songs transport you, through memories and association, to a different era than the one in which you’re listening, they can also sound as if they come from a different time. The second album by Chicago five-piece Footballhead is a perfect example. Though its 12 songs sit beneath the undescriptive umbrella of “alternative rock,” they also constantly shift between subgenres—post-hardcore, emo, pop-punk, and even (say it quietly) nu-metal—as they do. What remains a constant, however, is the production value, which makes the entire record sound as if it could be a forgotten relic of the 1990s now that the tail end of that decade seems to be fashionable again.
On one hand, it makes Weight of the Truth a fun run down memory lane for those who were there at the time (or, perhaps more so, for those who were there after the time and have a more idyllic concept of it). The likes of opener “Peace of Mind”—which veers between being Linkin Park–esque and incredibly Linkin Park–esque—and “Used to Be”—which additionally veers into mild homage to Papa Roach and Sum 41—are unashamed nods to their influences. That, though, leads to the other hand, whereby those nods begin to overpower the songs that contain them. Throughout, those influences—whether it’s Chevelle or Alice in Chains, or even blink-182 on the album’s most frenetically uptempo track, “Death to a Past Life”—supersede most everything else about the songs they inspired. Even “Diversion,” a single which 311’s Nick Hexum has called a “potential hit,” is a post-grunge callback to revivalist bands of the 2010s like Basement and Superheaven.
And therein lies the rub. Instead of using those influences as a springboard to build on and make their own, much of the band’s follow-up to their tamer 2023 pop-punk debut Overthinking Everything folds in on itself, held down by the weight standing proudly on its shoulders. There is a good record in there somewhere, it’s just not entirely their own. Still, the acclaim the band and this album are receiving shows that perhaps that doesn’t matter. After all, nostalgia is one hell of a drug, and Footballhead have a plentiful supply.
