- Released: 2020
- Origin: Long Island, New York, USA
- Label: Specialist Subject
- Best Track: Ohio Tpke
Seemingly without any prior announcement at all, punk rocker Jeff Rosenstock decided to drop his fourth album yesterday. We shouldn’t be surprised really as he has a history of bringing them out whenever he wants and not adhering to New Music Friday. His last one, POST, was released on New Year’s Day of 2018, of all days.
POST and its predecessor WORRY are both critically acclaimed, and with good reason. I really enjoyed both, although I don’t often return to them.
NO DREAM continues in the same vein and can surely only awe the critics again. It has smashing anthems like the title track and ‘***BNB’, but closer ‘Ohio Tpke’ is on another level. What an extraordinary song! So much energy, variation and control in the space of five minutes.
Above all, Rosenstock crafts really well-put-together albums. In these times of playlists and on-demand music, we forget sometimes that albums are meant to have structure and theme, but Rosenstock doesn’t. Every song feels like it’s in the right place, an answer to the one before it, making NO DREAM another lovable, high-energy romp that rarely stops for breath.
