Album Review: Jeff Rosenstock, ‘NO DREAM’

Staring down efforts such as his first solo effort We Cool? In 2015, WORRY next year, and POST in 2018, Jeff Rosenstock quickly began to take stock of what was happening. To him, music was about staying true to the punk scene and release work that would satisfy those involved. Now with the burgeoning musical career unfolding, this altered world Rosenstock was something that wasn’t ever in the plans.  

NO DREAM plays out much like the classic Rosenstock pedigree: music that manifests into a thrashing collection of bangers well suited for the deeply entrenched punk rockers. Helming most of the production alongside Rosenstock was Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Hard Girls, Joyce Manor) at Oakland’s Atomic Garden; the results are electric. The focus centered on making sure the tracks were recorded on tape, giving the sound on NO DREAM a much more beautiful live, organic sound. Rosenstock and the band behind leave mayhem all over the scene. The opener “NO TIME” bursts out the gate, setting the tone on what we are going to be expecting. The title track lures you into false, punk-pop ease before it kicks you out of the comfort zone two minutes in.  

Having dropped NO DREAM without any notification, Rosenstock shouldn’t give a shred of worry about what’s happening in his life right now. The musical career that he’s planting is just beginning to look epic. NO DREAM is a bonafide ripper.