Viagra Boys - Welfare Jazz (Album review)

After storming onto the music scene with their 2018 debut album Street Worms, Sweden’s very own Viagra Boys are back with the albums follow up Welfare Jazz. The singles the band released in the run up to the new album showed that the band looked to be slightly moving away from the straight up bass driven punk tracks of their debut. Welfare Jazz takes the sounds the band established on their debut and pushes its limits; it’s somehow less punk orientated but even more manic than what we saw from the band on Street Worms. The new album is packed to the brim with chaotic instrumentations, jazz interludes and deranged crooning courtesy of the bands lead singer Sebastian Murphy. Welfare Jazz contains a larger variation of genres than the band’s debut which at times works in their favour and at times is their own worst enemy, with some tracks being almost nu wave and others bordering on a more country sound. The album really seems to excel when on the tracks that are a little more out there and boundary pushing, with the more classic Viagra Boys sounding punk tracks sounding a little bit flat and exhausted in comparison.

Theme wise, it seems like Welfare Jazz could be a kind of eulogy to the outcasts of society, often using metaphors in which they compare themselves to creatures and dogs in some kind of twisted parallel world. It’s also an album drenched in witty cynicism, the lyrics at times are completely absurd and hilarious, even though Viagra Boys have always worked in clever and funny lyrics it feels like the game has been upped on the new record.

One the albums big problems is that it takes a while to get going, a couple of short and fairly uninteresting interludes near the start of the album really slow down the pace and it feels like you’re on track five or six  before the album really starts to come alive.  Take the opening track from the album for example, entitled Ain’t Nice, it immediately hits you with this blast of energy and even though this could quite easily just be one of the more mediocre tracks from Street Worms, it’s catchy and fun and starts the album of on a big note. After this we are hit with the short track Cold Play which is truthfully nothing more than an underwhelming jazz interlude and does not need to be at this point on the album, if on the album at all. Cold Play kills all the momentum the opening track established and as we then travel into the albums third track Toad we are hit with what is possibly the albums weakest song. Toad is a kind of Elvis and Nick Cave hybrid, at times sounding almost similar to a Cramps song; it leans far too hard on a dull bass line and is just super repetitive and uninspiring. After Toad has slugged to an end you are then greeted with another interlude to once again destroy any momentum that Welfare Jazz has up to this point.

Thankfully though, things do get better as the album progresses with the song Creatures being a huge highlight. Creatures is a perfect blend of post punk and nu wave which really comes to a head on a brilliantly constructed chorus. The track seems to somehow exist at a point where it sounds delicate and powerful at the same time, this might be one of the best tracks the band have ever released.

Secret Canine Agent is another interesting cut from the album; it’s short, sharp and doesn’t take itself too seriously, the nu wave elements we saw on Creatures returns here as well, admittedly more subtly on this track.

The track Girls & Boys seems to playing on an ironic juxtaposition of pop and punk, with the repeating of ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ as backing vocals sounding like something you would hear in a cheesy pop song from the 80s. As the song progresses the backing vocals start to replace the ‘girls’ and ‘boys’, for things like ‘drugs’, ‘dogs’ or ‘cops’, which is kind of funny in the context of the song but once you get past the humour of the track there isn’t much resembling a decent song underneath it all.

For the last two tracks the album takes a bit of a turn and becomes a lot more country music orientated with of course the classic psychotic Viagra Boys take on it. The last two tracks are both pretty fun songs with the albums closer being a huge album standout. Welfare Jazz comes to an end with a really fresh take on the late John Prine’s classic duet In Spite of Ourselves, featuring vocals from Amy Taylor of the Australian punk band Amyl and the Sniffers. This cover takes the beauty and humour of the classic and gives it a modern spin, whilst you can tell this will be a bit of a polarizing track you can appreciate what the band has done with the song. The twovocals on the song work so well together at times more snarling than singing, when the two harmonize it creates this kind of pained and delicate sound.

Overall Welfare Jazz takes far too long to get going and having what seems to be the majority of the weaker tracks at first make the beginning of this record a bit of a chore. The album is a lot more ambitious than their debut if even at times the band does bite off a little more than they can chew. When the album is good it’s really good, with some of the best tracks the band have ever released being scattered across this record, although it definitely lacks the consistent quality of Street Worms.

Best tracks – Creatures, In Spite of Ourselves, I Feel Alive, Secret Canine Agent

Worst tracks – 6 Shooter, Toad, Into the Sun

68/100