GNV FLA

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Customer reviews

review by: Davey1825 date: 2008-08-08 rating:
They stride on still strong
Less Than Jake are a band that just keep getting better as they go on with each record, and i cant say that this band have a single fault. This Album starts off with the brilliant City of Gainesville and then blends in brilliantly to the The State Of Florida, and from then on the album keeps up the tempo and doesnt lose the fun through out. A brillaint band with yet another outstanding album.

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review by: date: 2008-06-23 rating:
Any and all Less Than Jake CD's deserve a 5
The booklet that comes with this CD is now my favourite book of poetry. Vinnie's always been my favourite lyricist, but he's just surpassed himself. I think Less Than Jake should always release albums with some kind of concept (their best CD is Hello Rockview you see, whatever anyone says). When Vinnie's focused on a subject (in this CD Gainsville for the most part) and he's writing about something meaningful to him, something incredible just happens. Many themes run throughout the album, mostly focusing on city life, there's drugs and religion, but many are much closer to Vinnie, just look at Abandon Ship,Handshake... hell the entire middle of the album. And it all climaxes in the final three songs which merge together as a few of the songs on this release do, which seems to be a development on Anthem's final song, and not as people who like to pretend they 'know loads about music' will say, 'a bit like greenday did'. Particularly it all climaxes brilliently with Devil in my DNA which most reviewers seem to be overlooking, but the lyrics in this song just carry so much emotion, and I love the melody that Roger and Chris have given the words. What I love about Hello Rockview and now GNV FLA, aided by the clear messages due to a focused concept, is that listening to it is almost like having an entire novel beamed into your head in just over thirty minutes.
Now I don't want that huge outpour of love to make people think that the only thing worthwile about Less Than Jake is their lyricist. NO NONONONONO. I love ska/punk and Less Than Jake have always done it best, they've moved away from it, and still sounded great in Anthem and IWTOC, but I think ska/punk is where they need to stay. Roger's basslines are great, they were what kept their old albums interesting and varied when the ska sound could become too similar song to song, although the bass seems less prevalent on this disk.
The main complaint I can see from people reviewing this album is that the songs sound too similar it gets monotonous. These people are mostly (if not all) total idiots who have probably only listened to the album once, and not really 'listened' to it at all. That said, they do have a point, of sorts. Hearing some real ska riffs ala losing streak throughout the album was great, but the songs could sometimes drift into generic pop-punk riffs that were pretty unexciting and marred some songs, but this doesn't happen often and chris and co mix it up quite a bit with metal influences and some really 'hooky' (did I just coin that? I don't really like it.) riffs and progressions. Oh crap, I'm making it sound like I know a lot about music, I don't. Less Than Jake guys, feel free to slap me. I think that maybe this was a concious decision in a way, the emphasis of this album, I think, seems to be on the lyrics with the band running through the words without a lot of tinkering around repeating verses and whatnot. The other reason I think that people are getting this 'samey' vibe is that while this album has incredible lyrics and some really really great songs, there arn't really many instant all out classics, it's just very very consistant. This is why it ranks only as my third favourite album after Rockview and Losing Streak.
While I'm on a rediculously long rant, I'll go ahead and talk about Less Than Jake's 'sound'. I'm not going to use any of these horrible cliches I see lazy reviewers who obviously made their minds up about the album before they read it and use terrible buzzwords such as 'bouncy', 'fun', 'horn driven', 'adrenalin fuled', or 'skankalicious' or something rediculous, all this rubbish about 'this song is good at a party', that's just insane, I don't listen to Less Than Jake for party music, it's fun and uplifting yes, but I listen to share in the experiences of a man I admire and to listen to good musicions. All that la de da can go to hell.
Here's what Less Than Jake's got going for them: Catchy, upbeat, punk. The best melody based punk you'll find I'll go so far to say. It's not too pop, it's not just noise, and it's not so simple your mentally challenged five year old could play it. Ska, everyone should love ska, but there's not as much of it as you'd think (not saying this is a bad or good thing). Two incredibly talented singers, which is bizaarely rare for a punk band; Roger and Chris compliment each other beautifully. An incredible lyricist. Horns, and damn good players/writers for them.
So here you go, my final stand against people wishing to dismiss this band as frivolous childish, or party music, or whatever. I guess everyone seeing the length of this will think I'm insane. Oh well, at least I just stopped short of burning like a torch, and made a fool out of myslef on the internet instead.


review by: sr-punk date: 2008-06-15 rating:
Less Than Jake go back to the well....
Less Than Jake have gone back to the well for their seventh full-length studio album `GNV FLA' which is also their first non-major label album since 2000's Borders and Boundaries. After the poor reception received by many fans for `In With the Out Crowd.' The albums title is a reference to their home state of Gainesville Florida. The sense of homecoming truly brings the Less Than Jake sound full circle however; it would unfair to compare it to their older works like `Hello Rockview' or `Pezcore'. If anything, the album strikes a middle ground between `Borders and Boundaries' and `Anthem' and some slick production values.

The strength of any Less Than Jake album is their ability to mix up the styles of songs. Opening track `City of Gainesville' will surprise many on first listen as it offers a slow and fully striped down Less Than Jake, before fully dipping it's toe in the waters of the familiar sound in the rest of the album. The third track of the record `Does the Lion City Still Roar' (slated as the first single) has all the core elements to be a true classic. It sets the precedent for the rest of the album of upbeat ska grooves and bouncy choruses.

`GNV FLA' is by far their most consistent offering since `Borders and Boundaries' and an album even the most hardened Less Than Jake fan would find it hard to fault this album too much. With a clock in time of 35 minutes, the album never seems to drag on longer then it should do. The oddest choice on the album is probably the forty- second track `The Life of the Party Has Left the Building' that really acts as nothing more then filler between two strong tracks (This One's Going to leave a bruise and Devil in my DNA).

Less Than Jake have turned back the clock and produced an album that will please old and new fans alike.

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