Hellmode

One of the most important aspects of the rise of punk rock is it gave a voice to a lot of people who would not have one in the music industrys big leagues -- the un-pretty ordinary people who have something to say and an interesting way to say it might not have found a place on the stage of an arena or at the offices of a major label, but in a dumpy club and a cheap recording studio they could work magic. Jeff Rosenstock is just that sort of guy, and if his anger and anxiety are rooted in the concerns of an ordinary man, it means theyre powerfully relatable, and he knows how to come up with a hooky, punky melody, can bash a guitar pretty well, and has no trouble releasing his emotions in front of a microphone. With albums like 2016s Worry., 2018s Post-, and 2020s No Dream, hes won the devoted (if not massive) following he deserves. Like plenty of other regular guys, the events of the year 2020 onward (global pandemic, political chaos, weather-related disasters) were weighing heavy on Rosenstocks mind, and 2023s HELLMODE is full of superior punk rock ranting as he tries to make sense of it all. In his song "Doubt," he says, "Kill all the doubt or the doubt is never gonna go away," which is clearly good advice though its a bit hard to pull off, and even on songs like "Healmode" and "Life Admin," which musically play to his sunny and melodic side, Rosenstock has a hard time being comfortable with happiness, and while it doubtless makes life stressful for him, its great for his muse, and HELLMODE is loaded with great songs, whether hes struggling with the world around him while cranking up the tempo ("I Wanna Be Wrong"), pleading for love in pop-punk style ("Will U Still U"), or wrapping up the set with an epic tale of real life tribulations ("3 Summers). Rosenstock and his usual studio partner Jack Shirley wanted to up the production values for this LP, and HELLMODE was recorded at EastWest Studio in Los Angeles, a fancy-pants facility where everyone from Elvis Presley to the Beach Boys to Madonna to U2 have recorded. Rosenstock and Shirley were clearly not going for slickness as much as clarity and a big, powerful sound, and thats what they got -- this is Rosenstocks best-sounding record to date, and in terms of songwriting, performances, and passion, he and everyone on board brought their A game. In the great tradition of punk rock heroes, Jeff Rosenstock might seem ordinary to a lot of folks, but not many folks have the talent and the vision to pull off an album as good as HELLMODE, and it ranks with his finest work. ~ Mark Deming