ALBUM REVIEW: Silver Linings – Less Than Jake

For the longest time, there was a case to be made that Florida ska-punks LESS THAN JAKE were one of the most consistent bands in their scene, reliably churning out generally quality records every few years, including a run of genuine genre classics from the late 90s into the early 2000s such as Losing Streak, Hello Rockview and Borders & Boundaries. More recently, the 2010s have seen the band mostly focused on releasing EPs, and also undergoing key lineup changes with the departure of founding drummer and chief lyricist Vinnie Fiorello in 2018, but now the Gainesville collective are set to bounce back with their first album in seven years, Silver Linings.

Anyone who might have expected (or indeed feared) something vastly different from LESS THAN JAKE given those changes need only listen to a few moments of opener The High Cost of Low Living to have those worries quashed, as the veteran band immediately set the tone, roaring out of the gate with a triumphant blast of brass straight out of the 90s courtesy of trombonist Buddy Schaub and saxophonist Peter “JR” Wasilewski, before diving into an instantaneously-catchy trademark dual vocal from Chris DeMakes and Roger Lima; both sounding as vibrant as ever.

Lead single Lie to Me meanwhile, is LESS THAN JAKE at the peak of their powers – bright guitar riffing atop one of the most summery-sounding choruses to ever come out on a record released in the middle of December. On the punkier end of things, songs like Dear Me and Monkey Wrench Myself give new drummer Matt Yonker a chance to show off the upper end of his skills with pacy fills adding some real fire to proceedings as he batters the absolute hell out of his kit, while.

If any criticism at all can be levelled at Silver Linings, it’s that there isn’t a whole lot of variance across its twelve track runtime. Pretty much everything on the record follows the general template of “big pop-punk chorus with chirpy brass backing” that most of ska-punk as a genre is, with the notable exception of both Lost at Home and slinky sax-driven closer So Much Less, the latter of which takes a vastly more laid-back approach than the rest of the album, and climaxes with an outstanding solo from Wasilewski.

Whilst in many cases you’d think the relative repetitiveness could end up fatigue-inducing, the relative brevity of the album (clocking in a touch under 40 minutes) ensures that things never reach anything approaching boring. No song makes it over the four minute mark, and whilst it can definitely be easy to feel certain tracks begin blend into each other as time goes on, the overall result hits you with enough enjoyable moments to make the time spent enjoyable.

Put simply, Silver Linings is on the whole yet another highly enjoyable LESS THAN JAKE record. Fans of the band likely know by now more or less exactly what they’re in for, but that’s not to downplay the general quality of song-writing on display from DeMakes, Lima and co. While those totally new to the band are perhaps still best off reaching for one of the classics, if you’ve ever liked anything LESS THAN JAKE have done before now, odds are you’ll find Silver Linings an enjoyable time.

Rating: 7/10

Silver Linings is out now via Pure Noise Records. 

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