WORRY

Love Jeff Rosenstock. My son, who is much cooler than I am, introduced me to him a while ago. Reminds me a bit of my favorite band, The Replacements - raucous and loose, but also catchy. 4 stars.

Wow. I listened and then went right back and listened again. This album distills the angst of its time and place with surgical precision. I mean - it’s punk and ska-infused so I’m already on board but goddamn is its content bang-on. How did I miss this dear disc?

This was louder than I expected. Cool album

Rating: 9/10 Best songs: Pash rash, Festival song, Wave goodnight to me, I did something weird last night, Bang on the door, HELLLLHOOOOLE, The fuzz, While you’re alive, Perfect sound whatever

Great, great, great record!

A wonderful surprise. It is a bit introspective songwriter, with a rock and punk edge. A ben kweller, bob mould and NOFX shake in a blender. Wave Goodnight to Me stood out though i enjoyed the vibe from start to finish. Will definitely be seeking out more.

Perfect punkish/90sish/Weezerish throwback. No notes.

This is the album I suggested! I first heard WORRY a few years ago, after reading James Acaster’s book about music from 2016 (the book is called Perfect Sound Whatever, which is the closing track of this album). I liked it enough to buy it on Bandcamp but didn’t go back to it for a while, when suddenly during lockdown I put it on again and it just had a very profound effect on me. I then had a period of a couple of months when I was listening to this every single day. It became a comfort album for me in a way I’d never really needed before, and the experience of just listening through to WORRY from start to finish and embracing every emotion it brought up was quite therapeutic at a very rough time. Something about the anxiety of lockdown and the current political climate is so perfectly reflected in this record, which I usually describe to people as ‘pop-punk for grown-ups’. It is angry and raucous in a distinctly modern way and doesn’t hold back with its criticisms of gentrification, doomscrolling/algorithmic bias, and shitty landlords. But it is also uplifting and packed full of hooks and stadium-sized choruses (like the soaring summer singalong of June 21st, or the entirety of Festival Song), with the most powerful gang vocals I’ve ever heard (I still get chills every time We Begged 2 Explode kicks in). It is remarkably entertaining and inspiring. Jeff gives an incredibly powerful and emotional vocal performance all over the album (with some funny and quite charming slips on the high notes in I Did Something Weird Last Night - the aftermath of recording shouted gang vocals before the other vocal tracks). The instrumentation is really solid throughout with very fun drumming and some fantastic catchy guitar and bass lines, as well as some oddities like glockenspiels and kazoos that are somehow timed perfectly and just fit with the rest of the instrumental palette. Musically it goes through about every punk sub-genre, most notably on the second half of the album which is structured as one continuous movement just like Abbey Road, and flits from ska to hardcore to the electronic pulse of The Fuzz without breaking a sweat. And it all ends with Perfect Sound Whatever, and that cathartic mantra ‘perfect always takes so long because it don’t exist’. Well I’m sorry to disagree with you Jeff, but this album is pretty fucking perfect

Good punky rock album. The artist writes catchy powerpop/rock songs with a lot of energy and great hooks. I like the distorted, lo-fi sound of the album and the singers voice when it’s a bit screaming. Nice photo on the album cover (of his wedding), though I don’t understand how it’s related to the album title.

Solid post punk with a muture lyrical outlook and sophisticated music for its genre. I'm a little on the fence because I feel like it started really strong then fell into a groove that while still good, didn't ever come back up to that starting level for me. On the other hand I'm a sucker for pulling off 17 songs in well under 40 minutes. What can you say, punks just work harder.

Just an explosion of fun and creativity. Weaves between a few genres. At barely 30 minutes, this is a rare album that leaves me wishing it were longer.

If you’re like me and are trying to place the voice - it’s the guy from Bomb the Music Industry! (!) This is a fun rocker all the way through and has reminded me I like BtMI and should travel through their and Jeff here’s catalogue

Good stuff - Knew Pash Rash 4

Cool find. Never heard of him before, but I really liked it and will check out his other stuff. Thanks for sharing it.

Great fun album, full of energy

I think I prefer his debut "We Cool?" a bit more, but there's no denying that this guy's probably the best and most consistent modern pop-punk artist. Four outta five. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.

Rainbow is an interesting song. Has a frenetic SKA sound to it, but still very enjoyable. 17 songs over 37 minutes is also good. No need to prolong something into 37 minutes for one song. Enjoyable listen.

Sometimes I think I’m going crazy and hear Elvis Costello in every rock album I listen to on this list because I heard it here and nearly had a violent response until I realized that I was actually enjoying the music. It’s like a power pop rock that has yelling without being grating. We begged to explode and staring out the window were my favs.

I saw yet another relatively new punk album someone added to this list and kind of was unenthused, but this turned out to be much better than expected. Got a kind of unique style and some interesting song construction and surprising lyrics that deal with some pretty relevant topics (a song about data mining and targeted marketing, for instance). I also was just coming off 4 days in subzero Montana weather and connected with the short but great June 21st. Great album!

Proto-90s in the 2010s

4.5

17 short fast loud punk songs - what's not to love!

I enjoyed it, never heard of this album, so it was a nice surprise

Banger! A great pick from the last 10 years.

Punk rock, indie rock, power pop. Ni fu ni fa.

This started out pretty promising. Lots of energy and fun hooks. But towards the end it went to much into a ska-punky-vibe for my taste. Still pretty decent album.

bueno!

I always try and guess the genre from the album cover, but today I can't quite tell. It could go in any direction - might be a bit gay? Best guess is some kind of alt soft rock, maybe sufjan Stevens type stuff. Ok... it's got a rock opera vibe. But not a really bombastic one? Like if you made a rock opera in a small apartment. Or something. It's not too bad tbh. Gayness tbc - it's a bit show-tunesy, but punk/emo as well. I feel like this guy can write a song, and if he did so in a genre I froth on he'd be my hero. Anyway - 3/5 for not being boring, but I'll never listen again.

This was fun. Catchy and concise with great energy. Fave Songs: Pash Rash, We Begged 2 Explode, Festival Song

I don't have loads to comment here. I feel like I'll grow to love this on further listens. But at this moment I just like it and can sense it's potential to work it's way into my brain!

Even after all the albums I was deceived by the artwork. It was interesting, didn’t dislike but didn’t light up my life.

Old school but new school

This was interesting, kind of a modern punk music

You gotta love it

Never heard of this

Unexpectedly shouty. Not really my thing. Rating: 2 Playlist track: Pash Rash Date listened: 04/03/25

Rosenstock is one of those artists who really drives home the importance of persona and perception for me. I had already listened to this LP given how inescapable it was in our college radio station circa 2017, and the marketing from Polyvinyl Records and Jeff was pretty much everywhere in the indie sphere. I got so tired of seeing or hearing this man trot out his "lol I'm so GOOFY" persona again and again, and unfortunately I think it put me off his discography (which has some great tracks!) for the foreseeable future. This LP is initially fun and carefree, but the constant badgering of Rosenstock's whiny vocals and the insistent use of crowd choruses wears thin quickly, even considering the album's brief runtime. It almost invokes a certain toxic positivity, Jeff screaming at you to give up and enjoy life regardless over and over for 40 minutes until you succumb. I offer the anecdote above mainly to show my own rating bias here, but there's a conversation to be had about artist personas in the day and age of TikTok (RIP). Labels are increasingly persistent that artists market themselves on social media, and there's been an increasing dialogue about how exhausting it is to perform not only on stage but online 24/7. The artist's dialogue and marketing around a given LP can really twist its musical impact, and has at times bolstered or ruined a given album in my eyes. Jeff Rosenstock is apparently just this annoying inherently, but I can imagine other artists feel shoehorned into personas and marketing gimmicks they don't identify with their work, and at times may even detract from the message they're trying to send.

This was kind of an odd album. Solo guy but decides to do an indie rock punk rock album that sounds like he’s just trying to catch fire but nothing really hits. All of the songs are somewhat catchy but it seems like music a 40 year old makes to try and be cool with his teenage kids. Not feeling it. 5.2/10

This album was good fun to begin then started to grate on me.

2.5/5

A rather messy punk that is not easy to listen to or enjoy in its highest notes. I was not convinced by the album, neither with the singles nor in the sense of enjoyment. What's more, it doesn't even last an hour and I found it very tedious.

I don’t know if this sounds like it’s 25 years late or 40 years late but either way: it doesn’t sound very contemporary, it does sound like it’s peaking into the red and I’ve very little desire to get to the end of the album.