2017 was a wild ride for the USA, and these constant news stories, especially under Trump, don’t look to be stopping anytime soon in 2018. Nobody has been feeling as much confusion as Jeff Rosenstock, as demonstrated in his latest LP, POST-.
Right out of the gate, Rosenstock establishes this as a revolutionary album with the song USA, after a brief 10 second intro track. As of late I’ve found many politically fueled albums to be poorly executed, most just trying to support a political party or point of view. However, this is not to say there hasn’t been any good music to come out of Trump’s presidency, as Jeff Rosenstock manages to pull it off with POST-. His trademark low-fi vocals and guitars fit very well with feel of the album, as he takes an aggressive tone in much of the tracklist.
In the song “Yr Throat”, he encourages speaking up for what you believe in, making the listener ask themselves the same question when he repeatedly states, “What’s the point of having a voice when it gets stuck inside your throat?” This call to action is reflected in much of the album, and he does it well. Jeff still manages to bring his catchy lyrics into his sound, and puts a lot of thought into his lyrics. In the songs “All This Useless Energy” and “Powerlessness”, he speaks on situations where he has felt that he has no control over what’s happening in his life. He struggles with not being able to solve his own problems in his head, let alone help those the world is facing. Rosenstock goes into personal territory in this album, sometimes even partly blaming himself for not speaking up, or doing more to change the course of what’s going on around him.
Although the album is not explicitly political, I find some of my favorite songs during Trump’s presidency in POST-. Rosenstock doesn’t have an agenda he’s trying to create on this record, he just speaks from experience of being an adult in the 21st century. He doesn’t specifically state Trump’s name in any point of the album, and this was definitely done on purpose, ensuring that it doesn’t exclude listeners, whether they’re for or against him. No matter where you land on the political spectrum, I’d recommend giving this album a listen.
There will always be problems in this country, and POST– perfectly relates how many feel during times of confusion, like those we live in today.
