Imagine if Charles Bukowski started a synth-punk band with a group of jazz school dropouts, took mushrooms in IKEA, and made a concept album about becoming emotionally available in society—that’s viagr aboys, the latest unhinged album from Sweden’s finest swamp creatures, Viagra Boys. It’s a goofy follow-up to the politically charged Cave World from 2022, but frontman Sebastian Murphy, known for his sardonic wit and unfiltered lyricism, continues to satirize hypermasculinity, societal absurdities, and self-deprecation through songs like “Man Made of Meat,” “Pyramid of Health,” and “Store Policy.”
With his gang of drunk philosophers at a dive bar, Murphy is still shouting like a man who just lost a bet, but this time he occasionally sings—yes, sings in registers sometimes subconsciously parroting The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie (“Medicine For Horses”) and John Wozniak of Marcy Playground (“Pyramid of Health”).
There’s a raw energy to these tracks, where shrimp run the government and saxophones speak fluent nihilism, that fans have come to expect for Viagra Boys; an eclectic mix of post-punk, blues rock, and synth-driven sounds. The saxophones, bass, and guitars sound like they’re being choked out and more experimental interludes adds depth to the album’s sonic palette. “Uno II,” about a weird trip to the veterinarian, sounds like a car crash between Devo and a haunted Caribbean jazz club. There are moments of tenderness that creep in like mold on a velvet painting. But even those are filtered through a haze of vicodin, nostalgia, and whatever was in that shrimp cocktail. “River King” might be a love song, or a breakup letter to Murphy’s goldfish. Who knows? The piano is drunk and so are we.
viagr aboys is a bizarre but heartfelt exploration of growing older, staying weird, and maybe learning how to feel things other than mild rage and hangovers.
