Less Than Jake are recognized by most bands and musicians in the pop-punk scene as a highly influential act, so they must live up to their reputation, and this record does. Although I think it’s nowhere near as good as their last album, it’s still a pretty rockin’ record.
The album is focused around their home state of Florida, and consists of the same Less Than Jake formula we’re all too familiar with, ska, pop-punk and old school punk. The opening track clearly shows the ska influence, although only being 1.53 long, ‘The City of Gainesville’ is a great opening track, it really sets the mood of the album and has that ‘Florida sunshine’ feel about it. I’m a big fan of cleverly written lyrics and in ‘The City of Gainesville’ Roger sings the line, “I may be going broke, but I’m never broken down”, which is paying homage to student life. Not enough bands sing about little things in life and do it well, Less Than Jake aren’t the greatest lyricists in the music industry, but they’re words actually mean something unlike most of the crap bands we have around today.
From this point on, Less Than Jake show us their true pop-punk colours. The songs are a lot more upbeat and filled with that ‘Sunshine loving’ feeling. The brass lines get me every time, it does exactly the same job as a synthesizer would in you’re a modern pop-punk band, but with the character of the songs, it decorates them so much better, you really know you’re listening to Less Than Jake when you hear that distinctive brass tone. A perfect example of that is in the song ‘The Space They Can’t Touch’.
I notice a very Green Day sound in some songs too. Now I know Less Than Jake have been around for a good while now, but when listening to some of the songs on this album I can’t help but notice the Green Day sounding guitars and melodies. Most notable song for this is ‘Malachi Richter's Liquor's Quicker’, my personal favourite on the album, it has a 90’s punk edge to it, which I’d expect to hear on Green Day’s ‘Dookie’ album. I’m a big fan of Green Day, and I like some of The Offspring’s stuff, but since the 90’s they’ve basically abandoned that hard edge style. Where as Less Than Jake have preserved their style, and continue to write songs that appeal to the fans that have stuck with them the whole way and not just discarded them as soon as they’ve seen them on Smash Hits.
Although this album isn’t as good as their last album, ‘In With The Out Crowd’, it will still have a proud place in my CD collection. Less Than Jake have done themselves proud on this record, as it’s the first release off their own independent label, Sleep It Off Records, for that alone I have a lot of respect for them. I honestly don’t think I can put my finger on a song off this album that will sell the album, so I think it may struggle in record sales. But if you want to listen to some decent pop punk with a ska twist to it, then I would definitely advise you to buy this and other Less Than Jake records.
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Less Than Jake - GNV FLA
