Harsh rays of sun melt the common shelter of everyone currently in isolation, as depicted on the drug-fueled cover of Jeff Rosenstock’s “NO DREAM.” The suburban home is pictured liquefying under the vibrant sun between bold lettering and a psychedelic color palette, invoking feelings of escapism and confinement. 

Being a graphic designer himself combined with having a reputation as a DIY-lifer and perfectionist, Rosenstock’s psychedelic inspired album art selection is calculated. If the black light posters and psychedelic T-shirts now available for pre-order alongside this album’s release aren’t enough to tell, Rosenstock has embraced all forms of escapism available to him. 

Connection to nature is a recurring theme throughout Rosenstock’s packed catalog, which dates back to the early 2000s. His inner peace in the outdoors peaked on “Vacation,” his old band, Bomb The Music Industry!’s pop-punk opus, which planted the seeds for Rosenstock’s transformation to his solo sound. The summer-inspired atmosphere across the album is used as a coping mechanism on songs like “Campaign For A Better Weekend,” or for pure escapism on surf-rock hybrid “Hurricane Waves.”

In 2020, “Honeymoon Ash Tray” finds Rosenstock blinking spring days away and breaking his own promises to step outside. On “The Beauty of Breathing,” Rosenstock belts an anti-human contact power-rock chorus.

“NO DREAM” puts Rosenstock in the afterglow of his personal journey and political engagement. An afterglow where newfound free time is spent frustrated with how to continue on following the wake of his conceptual existential dread on 2016 breakout album “WORRY.,” along with the post-election anxiety ridden “POST-.” 

Akin to Rosentock’s previous effort “POST-,” “NO DREAM” lands at a once again perfect occasion for Rosenstock’s personality and perspective to become the soundtrack of the moment. 

“NO TIME,” an abrasive sprint, is a face-slapping introduction fitting for 2020’s turbulent present, where Rosenstock takes aim at his inner self unlike he ever has before throughout his career. Spitting up existential realizations from the soul has been par for the course in Rosenstock’s solo work, but here he approaches his undesirable tendencies with newfound emotional intelligence. Accurately identifying the image of, “the person you really want to be” in under a minute, he delivers a scathing admission of faults in classic playful hardcore-punk fashion.

Rosenstock’s relentless ability to inject infectiousness into every verse and hook while filling ears with punk production ear candy was present from the beginning of his career. With his even older band Arrogant Sons of Bitches, Rosenstock penned some of the best offerings in the ska-punk genre with abrasive behemoths “Kill The President” and “1-800-Alarm Me.”

The embracing of hardcore-punk and self-aware introspection to start “NO DREAM” immediately rings the dinner bell of Rosenstock’s days fronting Bomb The Music Industry! The majority of“NO DREAM” wouldn’t feel out of place in the Bomb The Music Industry! catalog, which early work consisted of speedy ska-punk instrumentation and more bombastic bursts of strained vocalization.

“Old Crap” begins with a lo-fi acoustic intro reminiscent of Bomb The Music Industry!’s folk-punk inspirations from “SCRAMBLES.” Rosenstock mulls over the exhausting feeling of becoming self-aware, his habit of recounting the same experiences over and over until your behavior pattern becomes insultingly predictable. On “State Line” he recognizes these feelings as fleeting leftovers, which follow him from a past life during one of Rosenstock’s most bitterly-empowering choruses. “f a m e” warns of the crash-and-burn results of his circular mindset. 

Across “NO DREAM” Rosenstock returns to the style in which he originally expressed similar introspection while in Bomb The Music Industry! However, Rosenstock’s increased knack for production meeting his personality-packed discography adds enough layers to make “NO DREAM” more than a simple return to form. 

The psychedelic aesthetic is also more than just a visual approach, adding layers of warmth and lushness to his guitar work, giving noisy climaxes a greater feeling of fullness. Back-to-back pop-punk energy magnets “Scram!” and “Nikes (Alt)” utilize increased use of vocal and instrumental distortion, creating a sheen of fuzziness leaving little room for negative space. 

Title track “N O  D R E A M” features another low-key intro, which anxiously builds to a rewarding anti-capitalist explosion of hardcore-punk delivery, sent off with a nostalgia-inducing harmonized closer reciting the jaded mantra, “there’s nothing more to see here ya’ll goodnight, start heading towards the exit.” 

Many moments on “NO DREAM” feel like heavy pivots from the essence of Rosenstock’s solo career. “NO TIME” has Rosenstock returning to previous career pockets out-the-gate, a clear contrast with the introduction of predecessor “POST-.”

Leading with the 7-minute sociopolitical anxiety epic “USA,”  Rosenstock evolves election anger into a defeated rejection of the red, white and blue. Longing repetitions of, “we’re tired, we’re bored” wash away the song’s initial buoyancy to open up the void for Rosenstock’s useless energy. “POST-” contains Rosenstock’s deepest passages into pop rock and raw singer/songwriter talent. With mellow piano rock tunes like “TV Stars” and an earnest display of fundamental talent on “9/10” among other potential fan-favorites, “POST-” makes for a storied chapter in the Rosenstock canon, especially given its predecessor. 

Emerging on New Year’s Day 2018, “POST-” read as a reactionary response to the pessimistic stage set on his 2016 breakout album, “WORRY,” which apocalyptic visions of evolving capitalism and political fatigue materialized the following November of its release.

Arriving in anticipation of Donald Trump’s eventual election to office in 2016, “WORRY.” provided an honest perspective of the helpless political landscape through grand, angered anthems like “HELLLLLHOOOOOLE” and “To Be A Ghost…” Rosenstock’s role as an artist is even put under a political magnifying glass on “Festival Song,” exploring guilt and frustration of benefiting from profit-motivated systems as his personal stock increases.

Rosenstock documented being broke while lacking a purpose on Bomb The Music Industry!’s “Get Warmer,” but years later expanded his scope beyond road life, missing rent checks and failed job interviews, now seemingly tracing the root of it all back to elite greed. But he’s only just traded sleeping on friend’s futons for a never-ending assortment of makeshift hotels detailed on the humorous and heartfelt “***BNB.” 

Meanwhile, life as a bothered, aging, punk die-hard grows more melodramatic on “WORRY.” gems, “Wave Goodnight To Me” and “Staring Out the Window at Your Old Apartment.” Tracks in this vein have Rosenstock wearing his influence on his sleeve, which is taken to an even further extent on the heavy power-chord chugs “Leave It In The Sun” and Beach Boys celebration “Monday At The Beach” off “NO DREAM.” Yet these songs are expertly packed air-tight with bleak poetry, able to avoid immediate comparisons or rejections of its potential pop-punkisms, providing evidence for why Rosenstock is among the handful of voices keeping the genre going. This songwriting approach made “WORRY.” the breakout album for Rosenstock that it was, showcasing Rosenstock’s understanding of the bigger picture along with heavy doses of relatable and personal touches that make his albums easy to turn to.

On “NO DREAM” Rosenstock finds himself turning to his own old energies, “the hardest part of growing up is letting go,” he cries on “Leave It In The Sun.” Clearly that feeling extends his music, but the results are a career-defining retrospective in the tier of his best work. 

As “NO DREAM” begins to reach a close, there’s no large-scale flow of tracks as a finale like “WORRY.” or 11-minute soundscape like “POST-.” Instead, Rosenstock wraps “NO DREAM” up with visions of returning home and a summary of emptiness on “Ohio Tpke.” 

“Nobody wishes for the things that they already have. We relive every misstep that we’ve made in our lives and hoard our scary secrets ’til they wake us at night and we think we can’t escape from it, but maybe we might,” which is exactly what “NO DREAM” is about, reliving in the afterglow of the past to mend and make sense of the complicated present, while leaving the rest in the sun.