viagr aboys - Viagra Boys: Review
Review by Lavender:
Viagra Boys are a Swedish post-punk band who began a crawl up to critical darlings in the late 2010s. They broke through with a grimy, guttural intensity to their music and a lyrical style that gives new meaning to the word bizarre. The band had improved with every single release leading up to their third album, Cave World, in 2022. I'm still a HUGE fan of that record and its ability to weave together a coherent narrative about the dumbest and most degraded parts of society through a series of stories that are all kind of about being de-evolving to a monkey. That's the kind of shit you're getting into with this band. For that reason, I was pretty excited for this record, and even though the band doesn't quite one-up their excellent predecessor, I'm still very happy with what they delivered.
This album gets off to an absolutely remarkable start with its trio of singles reminding me exactly why I enjoy them so much in the first place. First up is “Man Made Of Meat,” a hilarious jam that I listened to about 1000 times when or dropped. It's a genuinely hilarious song and a perfect example of how the band can be so funny, punchy, catchy, and absolutely ridiculous all at the same time.
Next up is “The Bog Body,” a story about getting jealous of a literal body pulled out of a bog, something that the narrator is VERY picky about accurately portraying. The song is weirder than I can even explain and still not as weird as “Uno II.” The third track on the album and second single takes the POV of a dog who is skeptical of what the vet is doing with the rotten teeth he removes. The song actually bounces from one idea to another that it sounds like an actual dog wrote it, and it's great.
A few more absolutely chaotic bangers pop up among the deep cuts as well. “Dirty Boyz” stood out to me right away with it's hilarious warning about dirty boys who smoke meth and steal things, all while the narrator fights against becoming one of them himself. It's absolutely wild from the opening notes to the surprisingly triumphant ascending guitar lines on the hook. That also extends to the one-two punch of “Store Policy” and “You N33d Me.” The former is a fucking deranged song that hilariously frames it's debaucherous lyrics as being “against store policy.” Meanwhile, “N33d Me” is the record's most demanding song with wiry guitars and unpredictable changes of pace that keep you on your toes as the intense vocals hold you hostage.
There's also some weirder, more reserved experiments on the record that click with me as well. “Medicine For Horses” is a much more lowkey cut with some of my favorite lyrics on the record. In particular, the lines about paying someone to let their horse crush you or stealing your spinal fluid and giving it to a child to later clone you are quite memorable. The song also has this dreamy instrumental that saunters along and remains compelling even without the band's typical intensity. “Best In Show pt. IV” feels closer to a creative writing exercise than a song as it tells an absolute batshit story that seemingly queries from anything the band can imagine and cuts it with wiry instrumental breakdowns that prevent it from ever becoming monotonous.
Speaking of monotonous, there are definitely some songs here that feeling uninspired in comparison to the rest of the band's chaos. “Pyramid Of Health doesn't do much for me with it's goofiness and cartoons vibes sauntering along without much in the way of lyrics that stand out. “Waterboy” is the most thematically imprecise song on the record which makes it hard to pay much attention to at all on consecutive listens. And finally the closing track “River King” is a surprisingly boring and sleepy way to bring the entire album to a close.
viagr aboys isn't the best collection of material the band have ever shared, though after Cave World that's a tremendously high bar to clear. But that doesn't mean these songs don't show off exactly what makes this band so unique and dynamic even in the overpopulated world of post-punk. Their absolutely unhinged songwriting and thunderous sonic palette still make for one of the most interesting mixes among any modern band and the record manages to add several instant classics to an already rich catalog. 7.5/10
For more post-punk, check out my review of Black Country, New Road's Forever Howlong
