Crannk Reviews Jokers Republic 'Falling Behind' album -

The Jokers Republic are a 3 piece ska punk band from Northern New Jersey, USA. They are a fairly new band so not a lot of history for new fans to catch up on. Last year the band found a steady following with attention from popular media outlet “What Do You Know About Ska Punk? ” as well as several plays on both national and international radio and appearances on compilation.
Their debut album “Falling Behind” was released on the 27th of April 2019 and offers fans 11 tracks one of which is a cover of “Three Little Birds” written by Bob Marley. It was recorded and engineered by Ryan Weil (Backyard Superheroes, P-Funk North) at Weilhouse Productions in Middletown, NJ. It was mastered by David Irish (Reel Big Fish, The Interrupters) at Pot Of Gold Recording in Orange County, CA.
The album starts well with “American Dream” followed by “Mannequins” which both have a good mix of distorted power chords with some palm muting and clean up strokes on guitar. The lyrical content is the usual social commentary punky angst with singing that is clear and smooth that feels very pop punk.
“Talking To Strangers” features Dave Barry (The Toasters, Beat Brigade) on keys. This song has some good reggae style running through it.
“Trump Card” and “Politics Belong In Punk Rock” kind of lost me as it felt like they didn’t hit the mark.
“Migraine” hooked me with its fast paced ska punk style it had more aggressive punky bits and some great vocal technique.
The rest of the album felt like the songwriting improved, they were similar ska punk songs but had more going on then the previous tracks.”Indecisively Indifferent” might be my favourite song from the album and the final track “Falling Behind” certainly made me want to hear more. While the absence of a horn section stood out and felt missing in some songs this band is interesting enough without it and it might even make their music more accessible to people who aren’t big ska fans.