Less Than Jake - Anthem Review

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full review

Tracklist:
1. Welcome To The New South
2. The Ghosts of Me and You
3. Look What Happened
4. The Science of Selling Yourself Short
5. Short Fuse Burning
6. Motown Never Sounded So Good
7. The Upwards War and Down Turned Cycle
8. Escape From The A-bomb House
9. Best Wishes To Your Black Lung
10. She's Gonna Break Soon
11. That's Why They Call It A Union
12. Plastic Cup Politics
13. The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out/Screws Fall Out
14. Surrender

Release Date: 2003

user rating

3.7
great

Chart.

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jimmymcmahon2001 (3)
...

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On 8 Lists

4.0
excellent

Chelsea Brinda USER (10 Reviews)

2006-03-05 | 24 comments | 22,120 views

8 of 9 thought this review was well written

Less Than Jake were formed in 1992, as a ska influenced band. The members of the band at the creation of this cd were Chris on guitar/vocals, Roger on bass/vocals, Buddy on trombone, JR on saxophone, and Vinnie on drums. This cd was released in ’03 on Sire Records. Now, many people hate this cd because this is where they lost their ska-ness and gained the punk-poppy feel. But let’s pretend that I’ve never heard a LTJ album except this one. I think that it’s totally amazing! Really, who cares if they lost their ska-punk feeling? This album still kicks ***, whether you like pop/punk or not. I love this cd as much as any other LTJ album, which is a lot.

Vocals/Lyrics!
Chris and Roger are fantastic vocalists. Especially Roger, ‘cause he has a really sexy voice. But, uh, yeah, I’ll move on. Their dual vocals make the song sound perfect every time. These awesome dual vocals show in most of their songs. But they really show in the chorus’ of Welcome To The New South, The Ghost of Me and You, The Science of Selling Yourself Short, Escape From The A-bomb House, Best Wishes To Your Black Lung, She’s Gonna Break Soon, and That’s Why They Call It A Union. There are also lots of songs with dual vocals in the verses, but I don’t feel like listing again. In Look What Happened, in the last chorus, there is dual vocals but with Heather Tabor of the Teen Idols. So, I really don’t need to say more about how amazing the vocals are. So, onto the lyrics. Vinnie is the lyricist, and he always does a great job whether they talk about drinking, getting drunk, whatever. They are always great, and they can sometimes be funny. On this CD, a lot of the songs talk about how your life can really suck whether its getting made fun of, losing your job, stress, or just being so depressed. It shows in Welcome To The New South, The Science of Selling Yourself Short, Short Fuse Burning, The Upwards War and Down Turned Cycle, Escape From The A-bomb House, Best Wishes To Your Black Lung, She’s Gonna Break Soon…actually, I’ll stop. As I go through listening to the lyrics, I realize that pretty much every song has lyrics about how life can ***ing suck. But, one of my favorite songs lyric-wise is The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out/Screws Fall Out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by "The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out"

You told me that your 20 years have gone by much too fast. And you've been hoping this year will be better than the last. You said you've been waging a war against the loneliest of nights. With the strongest drinks and longest lines. It's not that big of a surprise. That you're feeling more dead than alive. You're feeling more dead than alive.

So, if you just run out and get the CD, and not be so ***ing critical “oh, this is so poppy," and *** like that, you will see what I mean. :)

Instruments and stuff like that. J
Firstly, let me once again show you the band line up:
Guitar/Vocals- Chris
Bass/Vocals- Roger
Drums/Lyrics- Vinnie
Trombone- Buddy
Saxophone- JR
In every cd, Roger is my main focus, since I play bass. Roger can be so crazy with his bass lines, and I’m just in awe every time I listen to him play. I really need to see him live. Really. Actually, on this cd, there isn’t as much creativity, comparing it to their old CDs (Losing Streak, Pezcore, Hello Rockview). In The Science of Selling Yourself Short, there’s creativity, which is certainly a plus. Motown Never Sounded So Good is another plus, since its more of a ska-ish song. Plastic Cup Politics is one of my favorites instrument-wise. It’s fast, its fun, its creative, its perfect. Surrender (originally by Cheap Trick) has some nice fills during the verses, but that’s about it. Not too much bass creativity. Chris always does great on guitar, especially on the ska songs. I can’t really criticize much on him, because there are no flaws, in my opinion. Vinnie, oh geez, Vinnie. Vinnie on drums is pretty much the leader of the band. He’s so fast, and awesome, and I love him. He’s fantastic, especially in those faster songs like Welcome To The New South, Short Fuse Burning, and Escape From The A-bomb House. He also does great transitions going from fast to slow, and fast again. Buddy and JR do a great job boning and saxophoning. EXCEPT, lots of the songs don’t include Buddy and JR!! But in the songs that they do play in, they do a great job, as always. :thumb:

Overall Thoughts, Opinions, and Rating
The average LTJ fan would for sure give this cd a low rating. But on Sputnik, you can’t do that. You really, really have to review in the eyes of any reviewer, whether they’ve heard of Less Than Jake or not. I think that this is a great cd, and it really has grown on me. Some things I don’t like, like the lack of creativity on some of the songs, but if it had those, it would surely deserve a 5. So, in conclusion, I give this a…4 out of 5! Hoo-rah!

Songs that grab my attention
The Science Of Selling Yourself Short
Motown Never Sounded So Good
Escape From The A-bomb House
Plastic Cup Politics
The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out/Screws Fall Out

Have fun listening!!

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