‘The Art Of Losing’: American Hi-Fi’s Powerful Sophomore Set
With Nick Launay producing, American Hi-Fi sharpened their sound without sacrificing the hooks that made their debut a hit.
American Hi-Fi’s career got off to a flyer when their self-titled 2001 debut moved around 750,000 copies on the back of its first single “Flavor Of The Weak.” Constant touring also cemented the Boston quartet’s reputation as a great live band, but it meant they were forced to write the songs for their second album, The Art Of Losing, while they were out on the road.
Similar circumstances have derailed plenty of promising bands’ careers, yet American Hi-Fi handled the pressure well. They diligently stockpiled impressive material for their impending sophomore set, though this time round they chose a different producer to help realize it.
As frontman Stacy Jones has often sung the praises of American Hi-Fi producer Bob Rock (in one interview with V13 Media, he called Rock “one of my mentors”), it surprised fans that Jones and his team chose Nick Launay (Talking Heads, Public Image Ltd) to oversee The Art Of Losing. As Jones stressed, though, the change was necessary for American Hi-Fi’s evolution.
“When we made the first record with Bob, if we did anything that sounded kind of angular, he would steer us away from it,” he told the Boston Phoenix in March 2003. “When we did the new one with Nick, we would play something Clash-like or Pixies-like and he would say, ‘yeah, more of that.’ I’m not saying one is better than the other, but Nick’s style happened to fit with where we are now.”
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Ultimately, that meant that while The Art Of Losing was slightly rougher around the edges than American Hi-Fi, it was still focused and highly powerful. It was again stacked with hard-driving, yet highly infectious alt-rock anthems: not least “Beautiful Disaster,” “Teenage Alien Nation” and the self-explanatory “The Breakup Song,” in which Jones seemed more concerned with retrieving his record collection (“My Bloody Valentine, The Pixies/ Cheap Trick and Back In Black”) than losing his girlfriend’s affections.
There were also signs that American Hi-Fi wished to expand on their signature sound, especially on the R.E.M-esque “Save Me” and the slow-burning “This Is The Sound”: the latter a semi-acoustic ballad with echoes of latter day Beatles. Yet, for the most part, The Art Of Losing played to band’s strengths. Virtually all the tracks featured strong, sing-along choruses and the record’s title song exuded a crossover appeal akin to “Flavor Of The Weak.”
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Driven by a glam-rock drum tattoo and stabbing guitars, “The Art Of Losing” included a chorus referencing punk trailblazers the Ramones (“Hey ho, let’s go!/I’m gonna start a riot”) and its defiant message (“About being the underdog and sticking to your guns,” Jones said) struck a chord with music fans of all different persuasions. A popular radio hit, it rewarded American Hi-Fi with another Top 40 hit on Billboard’s Alternative Chart and also featured on the soundtrack albums for the films Freaky Friday and American Wedding.
The song’s parent album also performed well, selling solidly in the U.S. and making the Top 20 of the U.K.’s Rock & Metal Albums Chart, yet while it furthered American Hi-Fi’s cause, it became the band’s final full-length release issued by Island. Over 20 years later, though, The Art Of Losing still feels like a future cult favorite. It’s a fine sophomore set by anyone’s standards and its exhilarating, brashly-executed songs remain ripe for rediscovery.
