SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LESS THAN JAKE – BORDERS & BOUNDARIES (25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

LESS THAN JAKE
BORDERS & BOUNDARIES (25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
FAT WRECK CHORDS

I really wish pop-punk bands would stop making me feel old. The latest in what seems to be a raft of anniversary releases, Borders & Boundaries is a portrait of Less Than Jake at their best – loud, celebratory, and more important than anything, fun.

It’s a great opportunity to spend time with those songs that, if you’re anything like “Look What Happened” and “Gainesville Rock City” are here, but there’s a chance to reappraise all 15 tracks of wonderment here, including gems I’d long forgotten like “Mr. Chevy Celebrity,” which still drips with the same singalong venom it did a quarter of a century ago.

I confess to some giddiness in this review, largely because it’s late January and this is some pure joy. I rarely stopped singing, enthralled by the opportunity to fall back into my teenage self just for a moment, and I suspect, if you’re a fan, you will too. It still feels wonderfully relevant, and better still, Fat Wreck have enhanced the package with the inclusion of some demos, and it’s morbidly fascinating to hear the genesis of songs that would still be just as big so long later. Two thumbs up and keep on skankin’.

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