Review Summary: Less Than Jake are back, correcting most of the mistakes they made with IWTOC.
Before people had heard anything about GNV FLA, they were optimistic. The band promised what most of the fans wanted, and that was essentially a return to their ska roots. So is GNV FLA the return to their original all fans wanted? Well, yes and no. While it's not another Losing Streak, it's not another Hello Rockview, Anthem or In With The Out Crowd either. Instead, it is it's own entity, and is much better because of it.
For those not in the know, Less Than Jake were dropped by their record label last year, even though they still owed them another album, so GNV FLA is produced by the bands own label, Sleep It Off records. The band saw this as an opportunity to do what they like, and as a result, the album feels much better because of it.
Musically, the band remains pretty much the same, except for a few exceptions. Roger's basslines are still as good as ever, Vinnies drumming is about the same, and the alternating vocals of Roger and Chris are exactly as you'd expect, although it seems like Roger's singing a lot more. Now, onto the differences. The horns are back, and in a big way. While not on every song on the album, they are very prominent in others, with really catchy horn lines, and solos on a few songs. Chris's guitar work also seems much improved. While always decent, it always seemed to have two levels to it- the fast punk riffs and the ska riffs. On this album he shows he can do more- with a few guitar solos spread out on the album (something I don't think LTJ have had before) and some really good riffs (the opening riff/solo part of Settling Son sounds very, very metal).
Lyrically, the band sticks to similar topics: Growing up, losing people, and Gainesville. But while some of the lyrics are pretty damn heavy, the tune accompanying them is pretty upbeat (see Handshake meets Pokerface- about a woman who lost her son, I think. But with an upbeat ska chorus accompanying the punk verses). And yes, there is a lot of Ska on this album- from the slower opening song 'City of Gainesville', to my two favourite songs 'The Space they Can't Touch' and 'Conviction Notice'.
The one problem with a band that's been around as long as Less Than Jake is that sometimes some of their songs end up sounding similar. The Space they Can't Touch sounds eerily like All My Best Friends are Metalheads, the opening of Summon Monsters sounds a lot like one of the songs on Losing Streak (but I can't recall which one).
The album itself is very short, with 14 songs and only 3 of them clocking in at over 3 minutes, but none of the songs feel too short. One of the things I disliked about IWTOC was that a lot of the songs really seemed to drag.
So in conclusion, GNV FLA feels less like a return to their Hello Rockview/Losing Streak material and more like an amalgamation of the best works off all their albums, while correcting the mistakes they made with IWTOC. And yes, there's a lot of Ska.
Instant Awesomeness:
Conviction Notice (A very early-LTJ sounding ska song)
The Space They Can't Touch (It reminds me a lot of AMBFAM, but I like it)
Golden Age of my Negative Ways (I just love it!)
It'll grow on you:
Devil in my DNA (at 3 and a half minutes, it's the longest song, and has a great horn solo)
Settling Son (at first, doesn't sound at all like LTJ, but after a few listens it's really good. There's no horns on it though)
Skip it:
The Life of the Party has left the building (a really short Ska/Emo song. Didn't even know there was such a thing)
Abandon Ship (as much as I've listened to it, this song just hasn't grown on me)
