Anthem (stylized as anthem.) is the fifth studio album by American ska punk band Less Than Jake, released on May 20, 2003 on Sire Records, a Warner Bros. imprint. A year after their fourth studio album Borders & Boundaries (2000), the band had spent sometime at their practice space writing new material; by the middle of 2002, the band said their next album would be with Warner Bros. Records. Following a meeting with Rob Cavallo, he was enlisted as the producer for the album. Sessions were held at Piety Street Recording in New Orleans and Morning View Studio in Malibu, California, occurring between October and December 2002. Anthem is a pop-punk, pop rock and ska punk album that recalled the work of Good Charlotte and saw less emphasis on horn parts.
Anthem received generally favorable reviews from critics, some of whom noted the shift away from horns into pop-punk, while others commented on Cavallo's production. It reached number 45 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. "The Science of Selling Yourself Short" peaked at number 36 on the US Alternative Airplay chart. Preceded by a headlining US tour, "She's Gonna Break Soon" was released as the album's lead single in April 2003. The band then appeared on the Honda Civic Tour, went on a European tour and then spent three months as part of the Warped Tour. "The Science of Selling Yourself Short" was released as the album's second single in July 2003. Outtakes from the sessions were released as the compilation album B Is for B-Sides (2004).
Background
Less Than Jake released their fourth studio album Borders & Boundaries in October 2000, through Fat Wreck Chords. It was promoted with a supporting slot for Bon Jovi on their arena tour of the United States, a headlining tour of Japan, and a stint with MxPx in Europe. By August 2001, Less Than Jake were expecting to release a new album in early 2002, which saxophonist Peter "JR" Wasilewski anticipated to be faster and punk rock-orientated. By December 2001, the band had spent two months writing new material at a practice space in Gainesville, Florida. This space was dubbed Fort Hooker; after they had written some songs here, they would move to bassist Roger Lima's home studio, known as The Moat House, where hey would record demos and write more material.
In February and March 2002, the band headlined a few shows in Florida, before touring with Bad Religion and Hot Water Music. Around this time, the band said they had 17 new songs, 10 of which had been demoed. In July 2002, vocalist and guitarist Chris DeMakes said the band's next album would be released through Warner Bros. Records. The band explained that Craig Aaronson, who had worked with the band previously at Capitol Records, had started working at Warner Bros, and set up a meeting between them and the president of Warner. In August, the band toured with Sugarcult; trombonist Buddy Schaub suffered a wrist injury, and was temporarily replaced by Vinny Nobile of the Pilfers.
Production
In September 2002, Less Than Jake met with Rob Cavallo, who produced a few Green Day albums that they liked; the band chose him to produce their next album. They presented Cavallo with 40 songs they had written for the album, which he whittled down to a smaller section that the band would record. Recording took place between October and December 2002 with Cavallo as producer. They did pre-production in Los Angeles, California for a few weeks from October 2002, showing Cavallo the material they had. After the run-through, they drafted up a list of songs that wished to record, totalling 19. Several of these, such as "Short Fuse Burning" and "Plastic Cup Politics", had been performed live in the preceding months. On October 22, 2002, they flew from Los Angeles to New Orleans; they had wanted to go Nashville, Tennessee instead "because we wanted to stay in the south", until Cavallo suggested New Orleans. The members had proposed New Orleans while at one of their practices, but had disregarded this situation due to the "dangers of alcohol being served virtually 24 hours a day".