Anthem (Less Than Jake album)


Anthem is the fifth studio album by American ska punk band Less Than Jake, released on May 20, 2003 on Sire Records. Produced by Rob Cavallo, the album was preceded by the single "She's Gonna Break Soon", and was the band's most commercially successful album to date, reaching number 45 on the Billboard 200. It is the first of the band's albums to feature saxophone player Peter "JR" Wasilewski since he joined the band in 2000.
During the recording sessions, the band worked on a second, self-produced album of additional tracks each night after Cavallo left the studio. This was subsequently released the following year under the name B Is for B-sides.

Recording and composition

Recording took place between October and December 2002 at Piety Street Recording in New Orleans and Morning View Studio in Malibu, California, with producer Rob Cavallo.
The album includes a re-recorded version of "Look What Happened" from the band's previous album, Borders & Boundaries, which omits the horn-driven bridge between the intro and first verse. Still another form of the song exists, used on the Grind soundtrack, omitting all horn section. The band continues to play the original version live.
The title of the album directly comes from a lyric in the song "Screws Fall Out", but also from its use among the band to describe a powerful song that the band can rally behind, similar to "My Very Own Flag" and "Gainesville Rock City" from Pezcore and Borders & Boundaries respectively. Bassist, Roger Manganelli, often jokes that the title was selected by the band writing down every single word in the English language, crossing out words until "Anthem" was the only one left uncrossed.

Release

In April and May 2003, the group supported Good Charlotte and New Found Glory on the Honda Civic Tour. A radio edit of "She's Gonna Break Soon" without horns was released as a single on April 15. It was released on May 20, 2003 on Sire, an imprint of Warner Bros. Records. From June to August, the group went on the 2003 edition of Warped Tour. "The Science of Selling Yourself Short" was released as a single on July 1, and released to radio a week later. The music video for the song was posted on the group's website in late August.

Reception

The album performed very well, debuting higher than any Less Than Jake album to date. Songs released from the record include "She’s Gonna Break Soon" and "The Science of Selling Yourself Short", two of Less Than Jake's most commercially successful songs, and both of which became video singles.
Anthem is, commercially, the band's most successful to date; the album debuted at #45 on the Billboard 200, spent 12 weeks on the Billboard 200, and debuted at #7 for Top Internet Albums. "The Science of Selling Yourself Short" was a last-minute idea for the record, and turned out to be the band's most successful song to date. BuzzFeed included the album at number 23 on their "36 Pop Punk Albums You Need To Hear Before You F——ing Die" list.

Track listing

Charts

Artwork

The CD packaging included a different piece of artwork for each track except "Surrender", and two additional pieces not attached to a specific song, but still present and credited in the booklet. Each song's lyrics are printed on the back of a piece of artwork, but no lyrics are provided for "Surrender". The art direction was done by Vinnie Fiorello and Wendy Dougan, with Fiorello creating the concept for the CD booklet and Dougan designing the booklet itself. Most notable are a piece by Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant for "The Upwards War and the Down Turned Cycle" and Chip Wass's design for "The Science of Selling Yourself Short". The latter would inspire the music video for "The Science Of Selling Yourself Short" and be immortalized as a toy in Less Than Jake drummer Vinnie's Monkey Vs. Robot collection.
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