“This is the old dude Howie J Reynolds, and you’re listening to Less Than Jake” aah that takes me back; back to sitting on my ass in my friend’s room, with a bottle of Stella in one hand and cheese and chips (fries) in the other; this album came out through the speakers before many a night out. Er anyway, here’s the review…
‘Automatic’ explodes like a firecracker, and doesn’t stop its furied rhythm until the whole 2 minutes is up; guaranteed you’ll be shouting at the top of your voice ‘I think I think I know it all’ – if ever there was a song to take up to the DJ.. actually any of these would do. ‘Happyman’ fits it’s description perfectly, and woah, what a surprise, is another sing-a-long classic; any of you who bought ‘Borders and Boundaries’ first will be surprised by the pace; this isn’t gonna slow down, and there are no ballads here – which is either a good or bad thing, depending on your particular pace.
‘9th a Pine’ starts with some relatively soothing trombone at the start lulling you into a false sense of security; the ska guitar hints at something more, and that’s exactly what you get; stopping occasionally to catch itself up, this song is easily a favourite, and finishes in typical excellent dual vocal fashion. Its by the time ‘Sugar in your gas tank’ comes around that you begin to realise the Jakesters aren’t going to let up; and a good thing too, because this is another hit; a bit of lone ska guitar and some great lyrics never sounded as good as this. Moving on..
‘Shindo’ showcases the quality of vocals LTJ possess, with what seems like bottled excitement and enthusiasm in both the backing and lead voices of Chris and Roger – and it is definitely infectious. ‘107’ isn’t up to the standard of these first 5, but is by no means filler, and you won’t even think about skipping. ‘Johnny Quest thinks we’re Sellouts’ starts in an devious, sneaky tone, before bursting into some damn fast guitar and a shout worthy chorus ‘JOHNNY QUEST THINKS WE’RE SELLOUTS!’ – best have a glass of water nearby for when your voice goes.
‘Krazy Glue’ slows it all down for a bit of a breather, but by no means discards pace; instead just sit back and relax. ‘Never going back to New Jersey‘ begins with some quality 50s style soundbite, progressing to a slow-in-comparison bitch, which, oddly, is still enjoyable to listen to. ‘How’s my driving doug hastings’ is short and sweet, maybe a little short, but hey its all good.
‘Just like frank’, ‘Ask the magic 8 ball’ the list of good tracks goes on and on (up to 16, incidentally’; ‘Jen doesn’t like me anymore’ pulls back a bit of the speed of the earlier tracks; making for yet another tuneful classic, stopping only to exclaim ‘Jen doesn’t fucking like me anymore!’ and what seems like everyone joins in to shout the same thing for the duration of the track. ‘Dopeman’ is the disappointing track; this along with ‘107’ are what stops this from being one of the best punk/ska albums of all time.
By now, you’ve almost reached physical exhaustion, but no time! ‘Rock’n’roll pizzeria’ pushes you back into the middle of the dance floor, and ‘Lockdown’ just rounds it off oh so nicely; in my drunken stupor, I realised that if you skip back on track one, there’s an extra forty seconds of speech by mr howie, to the amazement of everyone in the room. So,are there are any negative points to this album? not many, but I wouldn’t want to give it a very highly coveted 5 out of 5, due to the aforementioned average tracks. Other than that, fucking superb; plus if you get this coupled with Hello Rockview for £15 in the same CD case, you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank..
nick.