B is for B-sides #3

Seeing as I so rudely stole the name of this feature from a Less Than Jake album, I thought it would only be fair to let them have a starring role in this week's B is for B-sides.

Less Than Jake's new single, Does The Lion City Still Roar?, is pretty fantastic, as all who've heard it will know (if you haven't heard it yet... listen to it!). With the single came the welcome return to LTJ's awesome horn section, and luckily they stayed throughout the entire album GNV FLA (Gainsville Florida... I just realised!). More recent LTJ albums have had a substantial lack of horns, but the press release for GNV FLA promised "the 'traditional' Less Than Jake sound, complete with their trademark bouncy ska grooves and horns galore." What LTJ promised was delivered, and this is particularly obvious on the lovely single Does The Lion City Still Roar?

That's all very well, but what about the B-side?

With this B-side track, LTJ have reached an all time low. Quite literally. All Time Low is of an acceptable quality for a regular band's B-side, but this is Less Than Jake we're talking about, and I feel this song is a bit of a disappointment, which reflects why they didn't put it on GNV FLA. Unfortunately there's no brass, but it's not like every single song requires a horn section. The song chugs along quite nicely, but it's not particularly energetic and it's rather repetitive. By no means is it a bad song, and if it were any other band who'd written it I'd have no complaint, but I suppose I was expecting something more from a band as good as Less Than Jake. Mind, it's a perfectly good song. Enjoy.

A-side: Less Than Jake - Does The Lion City Still Roar? (mp3, 2.6mb)
B-side: Less Than Jake - All Time Low (mp3, 3.6mb)





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