CHINESE FOOTBALL - Chinese Football 2xLP (Colour In Colour Vinyl)

Label: Dog Knights

Chinese Football’s self-titled LP is an album about growth that straddles a limbo between fantasy and reality. The album opens deeply rooted in the former, painting a picture of a precarious jungle our narrator finds himself in. The backdrop of buzzing cicadas is in itself a resonant image for anyone who has spent a summer in southern China’s pockets of humidity.

Though commonly categorized as Midwest Emo, it’s misleading to label Chinese Football that way. Sure, they boast the same twinkly telecaster sound to that of American Football – whom they shared a stage with in 2019 – but the comparisons really end there.

Chinese Football evoke the sprawling, urban metropolises that have swept over every corner of China in the last fifteen years. Their sound is rooted in an outward expression of both wonder and urgency, simultaneous with the inevitable feeling of insignificance from living in a city as imposing as their hometown of Wuhan. Their music speaks not for themselves, but for a generation awash in both ambition and ennui.