Following Swedens prestigious tradition of disco bands and polished pop mastery, enter Stockholms Viagra Boys, stumbling in half cut, mumbling with spaghetti stains all over the lips, ready to shake hips and sing ridiculous songs about conspiracies concerning frogs, and then attempting John Prine karaoke. Viagra Boys play trashy dance-punk bangers with infectious grooves and lots of songs about dogs. Welfare Jazz is the follow up to 2018s Street Worms, a ferocious 9 track album that brought their unique brand of sleazy post-punk to sold out clubs around the world. Welfare Jazz is a different beast, building on the foundations of the dank debut and at times taking a detour through the scenic route. The production is lush, the grooves deep, the sounds both harsher and glossier. Take for example the standout single Creatures, where the band lean into some New Wave instrumentation a la Blondie or Talking Heads. Fans of Street Worms punk-bangers will find more of what theyre after with songs like Aint Nice, Girls and Boys and Six Shooter igniting fires amongst the tracklist, but what is not expected are the albums more tender moments, and its country-embellished finish. To The Country may just be the best song Viagra Boys have written, which is followed by a unique noisy cover of a John Prine classic duet with Amy Taylor from Amyl and the Sniffers. Throughout the record, frontman Sebastian Murphy seems to be recounting a story, a romantic rock opera of sorts, blurring the lines between his hilarious degenerate persona and his own personal life. Its part pisstake, part heart-on-sleeve but all together this combination is what makes Welfare Jazz makes a fun ride start to finish.
