by Matt Morgan-Rawes

Created on: August 07, 2008   Last Updated: May 18, 2012

There are three bands who have all been heavily linked with the ska revival movement of the mid-Nineties who, since the 1996 Summer of Ska', have been criticised for their movements away from ska after its popularity inevitably waned. One of these bands are Reel Big Fish who, based on the happy-go-lucky, ska-pop tones present on their most recent release "Monkeys For Nothin' And The Chimps For Free", have stopped giving a damn if ska purists and sour-faced punks dislike their music. The second are Goldfinger who have all but left ska behind, with only two admittedly awesome ska songs on their new album "Hello Destiny." Clearly Goldfinger aren't too bothered about what ska purists think of them.

And then there is Less Than Jake. The band have always appeared to be a band of the people. If one needs any proof of this, go to a Less Than Jake concert, take a deep breath and take in the curiously addictive aroma of loyalty, adoration and body odour that linger in the air whilst they play with all the energy that they can muster. So when the band released their in Brazil; a burnt out Chris Demakes bitterly speaks about In With The Out Crowd, half-heartedly insisting that the band will "work on material that you might actually like." They had put their all into the album one expects nothing less from a band as hard working as Less Than Jake but their efforts were rejected, with fans disliking the polished production values, the poppy sentiments and the lack of guitar upstrokes, walking bass-lines and brass-work.

G2006 effort "In With The Out Crowd" to lukewarm reviews from critics and mostly universal disdain and disappointment from their own fans, one can imagine just how "bummed out" Chris, Roger, Vinny, Buddy and J.R were.

Indeed I remember seeing a video on the Less Than Jake MySpace page whilst they were on tour iven the new direction that the band tried to take, you can imagine my morbid curiosity as I obtained a copy of their newest album, "GNV FLA." What on Earth were Less Than Jake going to give us? The raw ska-punk sounds of "Losing Streak", the polished pop-punk with horns approach heard in "Anthem" or, as I see it, the album that features the best song-writing of their career so far, "Hello Rockview"?

Well the answer to the original question is: a bit of everything! Acting almost like an un-official Greatest Hits album, Less Than Jake turn back the clock and give their fans a sample of each of the styles present on their albums. The album is not, however,

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