Review: Less Than Jake - GNV FLA
Posted on 30 June 2008 | 4 Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Punk, Ska
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In the 15 years that they have been playing together, Gainesville, Florida’s Less Than Jake have become a ska-punk institution. From indie to major and back, the band has tweaked but never really truly strayed from the signature LTJ sound. Sure, over the course of seven full-length albums and a zillion compilations and EP’s there were bound to be a few miscues, but (for the most part) LTJ has been remarkably consistent. Their latest album GNV FLA (the band’s first on their own Sleep It Off Records) is more of the same, but better. It’s a fact.
I’ve been a fan since way back when and GNV FLA has a feeling about it; like Chris, Roger, Vinnie, and the guys are a little angrier and ready to do something about it. While LTJ’s last few albums have suffered from a stiffness that one can only attribute to the demands of major-label record execs, GNV FLA just sounds, well, liberated. GNV FLA finds the band a little more energetic and a little more focused with the skank a bit livelier and the punk a little more biting. Even the horns sound sharper and brighter than they have in awhile. And while the band’s sound hasn’t ever really strayed too far from the ultra-melodic and insanely-catchy ska-punk they’ve been banging out all these years, this feels like a return to form for the band.
From “One Last Cigarette” to “All My Best Friends Are Metalheads” and (now) on to GNV FLA, Less Than Jake is like comfort food for aging punks and it just feels like hanging out with an old friend. And in capturing a little of the old magic, LTJ has made what is their strongest album in 10 years.
MP3 | Less Than Jake – Does The Lion City Still Roar? GNV FLA
Comments
Bayside at the Fox Valley Mall It came from the nineties (Vol. 25)
it was 95, i was sitting in your basement whilst a party was going on, you asked me if i had ever heard of less than jake, i said no, you put on losing streak, and my life was changed forever…