Both chaotic and catchy, Jeff Rosenstock’s “HELLMODE” boasts an incredibly consistent tracklist of indie-rock and pop-punk bangers from front to back.
After a killer opening with “WILL U STILL U” where Rosenstock’s vocals sound like he’s placed the microphone inside his mouth, you’re thrown into “HEAD.” It opens with some incredibly fast drums and Rosenstock screaming lyrics about how Jeff Rosenstock the musician is not the same as Jeff Rosenstock the person. It’s hard treading the line between fact and fiction when it’s all presented as the same in his music. Eventually, the chorus hits and Rosenstock starts singing, “There’s a bomb inside my head and I wish that I could disconnect the threads.” The split for him is too much and he feels as if he’ll explode.
The third song, “LIKED YOU BETTER,” is, as the music video and lyrics suggest, about a toxic roommate who is driving Rosenstock insane. He sings about how this roommate is causing his heart to “beat out of time” and how he doesn’t “wanna tell [his] friends” as they might get scared off or begin to judge Rosenstock for rooming with this person. The catchy riffs and fast drumming come to the forefront during the chorus when it sounds as if a whole band is backing up Rosenstock vocally which leads to one of the catchiest parts on the album that was stuck in my head for weeks after my first listen.
Further into the album is the track, “GRAVEYARD SONG.” This catchy jam is about how screwed up the world is at the moment. Rosenstock recounts how he’s become desensitized to bad things happening to the point where he can’t care anymore. His outlook on the world has become so negative that he believes people should stop “building bridges, [and should] start digging.” The stripped-back acoustic guitar and drums, which transform into a much more lush instrumental with the addition of bells and claps, are a perfect fit for the song.
“HELLMODE” is fantastic through and through. It’s at times serious and other times downright pessimistic but it never fails to balance the two moods, not even for a second. Paired with some of the funnest instrumentation in recent rock music, this is an album you won’t be able to stop listening to.
