SKA DREAM

Jeff Rosenstock's SKA DREAM is a very fun and vibrant ska album, and it also makes for a pleasant introduction to Rosenstock's music to new listeners such as myself.

I've definitely heard of Jeff Rosenstock, but for some reason, I felt like I already needed to know him to enjoy his music, so I never checked it out. I felt like the fanbase and the general enjoyment of Jeff Rosenstock was along the lines of an inside joke or a meme. I'm not trying to make fun of the music at all, but I'm more saying it felt like being a Jeff Rosenstock fan is a niche, secret thing to do, and I had no business trying to listen to an artist whose community I am not a part of. This is a foolish way of thinking of course, and I'm glad I pushed through that barrier and decided to make SKA DREAM my first ever Jeff Rosenstock album.

I am enjoying my perspective on listening to this album before listening to NO DREAM. Instead of hearing ska renditions of already existing songs, I am just listening to a ska album, and I am loving it. The year is 2021 and I am vibing hard with a ska album. Pretty much every track on here is a bop, with a couple exceptions. The two or three tracks that aren't complete bops are still really good, but just not explosively amazing like almost every track on here is. S K A D R E A M is so fun to scream "IT'S NOT A DREAM IT'S NOT A DREAM!" along with, and Horn Line is a smooth reggae-ish track with a very sweet ending. Old SKrAp has heavy pop-punk vibes for being a ska song, which isn't too weird. It's songs like this that interest me in the original versions of these tracks.

I'm not sure what is going on with me, but I am living for this wave of revising music. I love when artists reimagine other artists work, but it's really special when an artist rethinks their own work. With SKA DREAM, Jeff Rosenstock reimagines his work in such a successful way that he has just simply made another album. Tracks like Checkerboard Ashtray hit so cleanly that you know these tracks will hit just as hard as their original versions.

Another fantastic trait of this album is the fact that it's 13 tracks long and just under 40 minutes. This album is trimmed down to only its best parts, and that's killer. None of these tracks are filler, making this album such a clean and solid record, and I think it's one of the first albums that's crossed my ears this year that fits that bill. Sure, the final track suffers of what almost every album ever's last song suffers of, and that's being as easy to listen to as the rest of the album, but being the slightly longer than the rest of the tracks, and a little more experimental as well, which causes the track to sometimes be good, but almost never have any standalone replay value. Good tracl, good closer, just getting tired of every album perpetuating this trope is all.

All in all, SKA DREAM is a fantastic ska record that definitely brightens up 2021 for me. Good vibes and catchy tunes make this easily one of my favorites of the year.

best: NO TIME TO SKANK, Airwalks (Alt), SKrAm!, S K A D R E A M, Horn Line, Leave It In The Ska, Old SKrAp, ***SKA, Checkerboard Ashtray

worst: p i c k i t u p