Viagra Boys - Welfare Jazz (2021) (English review)

 

It still seems like yesterday when many of us discovered that video of some tennis players playing a match on a very colorful and indoor court. In that match, quite amateurish, it must be said, a singer who looked like a run-down junkie livened up the confrontation by singing about the strange benefits of sports, in that great song called "Sports" that introduced us to Viagra Boys.

Three years after that, and with "Street Worms" already being unanimously among the clear revelations of the last decade, we get the band's second album, "Welfare Jazz". In it, we see that the essence of the Swedes, composed of post-punk, more classic instruments and that important touch of irony, remains unchanged once again.

Since the first LP we know about the Swedes' ability to compose super catchy songs, which never ceases to surprise us when they begin this second one with "Ain't Nice", a song that crushes your bones with its rhythm and that sax. so groundbreaking. Another basic foundation of the band is the bass, which together with the voice of frontman Sebastian Murphy make up the clear skeleton of Viagra Boys' sound. This is demonstrated in "Toad", a song that levitates between the insistent bass and the crooner and torn voices.

Within that very post-punk style of stretching the bass lines ad infinitum, the group likes to vary the way in which they throw this viscous paste, sometimes dark, sometimes luminous, at their listeners. In the case of "Into The Sun" there is a very "Sunday Morning" atmosphere that reminds us so much of The Velvet Underground and that permeates everything with that rock that is no longer rock, soft and left. The sound of the hangover.

Before the easy but well done "Creatures" I prefer songs that, in addition to being more acidic, manage to attract with small red cherries deliberately included between so much black and white. We can find this in the action movie scene rhythm of "6 Shooter", or in that theme about planning a bank robbery that is "I Feel Alive", with that diabolical piano sound.

As we near the end, although I like the Blur vibes of "Girls & Boys" (even in the title) and the folky offshoot of "To The Country", I'm left with the collaboration of a still unknown Amy Taylor ( Amyl And The Sniffers) together with which the group works on a great song flavored with 100% American oak whiskey.

All in all, Viagra Boys' second album is a magnificent follow-up to the first "Street Worms." While it is true that they have lost a bit of the power of surprise, they have certainly gained in terms of creating a mature sound that is not at all devoid of taste. They have shown us again that they are capable of a lot, once again.