Less Than Jake – B is for B-Sides

When bands go into the studio to record a new album, they almost always record more songs then they have on the actual release. Most of the time you, as a fan, will never get a chance to hear those mysterious extra songs that were recorded but never released. Less Than Jake decided to help you with this, thus B Is For B-sides was created and release.

It features twelve tracks that were recorded during the Anthem recording sessions, and were, for some reason or another, not added to the final copy of Anthem. Although I, personally, was really impressed with Anthem, there were a lot of people saying it was too smooth, too polished, just not raw enough. Those people who thought that will be happily surprised with B Is For Besides who’s songs are a lot more raw and unpolished. It’s obvious that they didn’t spend quite as much time polishing the songs up, and they sound good this way.

Musically, you get what you’d expect from Less Than Jake. Energetic, fun, ska/punk songs. They don’t tread new ground as far as lyrics, still singing about growing up, wanting to leave, and just life in general. The vocals are nice and nasally, but still easy to understand. Although, you will need a lyrics sheet if you want to sing along right away. Surprisingly, the horns seem to be a bit soft and really in the background. I think it would’ve been better if they brought them up a bit and made them just a bit more evident.

Not many bands would be able to make an album out of leftover songs and have that album still be a good one. Less Than Jake are able to do that here. It is rumored that Less Than Jake recorded 29 tracks during their Anthem recording sessions, but if you put both discs together you only get 26 tracks; where are the final three? I have no idea. Maybe they will show up on a compilation, or will be re-recorded for a new release, or maybe we’ll never be able to hear them. But no matter what, we can be very happy with the 26 songs that we have had the opportunity to hear from their recording sessions.