Jeff Rosenstock is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter better known for his former bands Bomb the Music Industry! and The Arrogant Sons of Bitches who releases his fifth studio album `Hellmode` this week.
The album opens with `Wiil U Still U` a kind of questioning plea to a loved one after an unspecified misdemeanour shared over a fast-paced pop punk musical soundscape which gains a choir like vocal backing as it evolves before ending abruptly. We have a brief punchy train of thought shared frantically in `Head` a ninety-one second outpouring of angst.
`Liked U Better` is a bouncy anthemic like piece that alludes to somebody who turns out to be better as a fantasy rather than in reality. We have a fairly reflective musing in `Doubt` which has a fairly upbeat positive summery vibe but becomes more forceful as it evolves. .
`Future is Dumb` is a reflection on whether people still have career plans or ambitions, or do they just take life it as it comes splayed over a pop punk like earworm of a track that ends with a shouty questioning barrage of uncertainty. There`s a grungy slow burn texture to `Soft Living` another introspective meditation on life.
`Healmode` is a sort of meandering stream of life consciousness elucidated swiftly over a fairly stripped back musical backdrop. There`s a similar vibe to `Life Admin` apart from some heavier band interludes interspersed on route.
`I Wanna Be Wrong` is an amusing two-and-a-half-minute pop punk piece of prose while `Graveyard Song` is much more reflecting on the state of the world or environment we live in.
The album closes out on `3 Summers` an epic contemplation on what appears to be thyself and anything else that springs to mind, a real foot tapper of a number to end on.
I read somewhere that Jeff Rosenstock makes increasingly chaotic albums for an increasingly chaotic world and that probably sums up this release much better that I ever could.
There`s much to enjoy here and we get some bouncy anthemic earworms along with more stripped back and reflective thought-provoking numbers. The lyrics can be a little off centre at times but allow you to decipher them in your own way, whether right or wrong. An album that i`m sure you will discover something fresh each time you return to listen.
Rating 8 / 10
