Viagra Boys: viagra aboys
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Swedish punk superstars and occasional humourists launch their fourth album of delicate excellence and forward-facing boisterousness, whereas embarking on a EU/UK tour that touches down in Manchester subsequent week at Victoria Warehouse. Album of the week, very possible album of the 12 months, says MK Bennett.
There’s a sure kind of alpha male musician who, from the surface no less than, seems unreconstructed, untouched by trendy political morality and the confusions of expectation. This seeming lack of affectation has its personal following, a need to return to less complicated instances, less complicated motives, some working to face nonetheless. Whether or not somebody with the apparent enterprise acumen of, say, Joshua Homme may be seen or simply offered as unreconstructed is open to debate, however the music he has been trying to reshape into robotic rock for the final twenty years is something however normal and conventional. Lanegan’s finest music earlier than his premature demise was closely digital. Homme’s music appears like he’s attempting to refine it right down to a single tremendous level, a single level of sunshine.
That single level of sunshine and a figuring out smile is a typical thread with Viagra Boys, who, regardless of taking a extra punk-based method to their singular endeavour, sound pin-sharp and laser centered on their purpose, no matter that occurs to be. What they should say could also be veiled in allegory and buried beneath sarcasm and piss-taking, however it nonetheless isn’t that tough to seek out. Unremarkable males in tracksuits they could be, however on this album, there’s extra funk than a cowshed’s guttering and sufficient nice titles alone to earn them kudos. In any case, except it’s associated to the refrain, the thought a band places into titling a track could inform you numerous.
This principle begins us off neatly at Man Made Of Meat, a dissection of masculinity and its varied social standings, as singer Sebastian Murphy constantly places himself within the first-person narrative, the firing line the place no artist is allowed to be with irony. This sounds not dissimilar to that different well-known Swedish punk band, The Hives, although they’re a extra linear, apparent outfit. Spiked, aggressive riffs, brief and staccato, characterise the start of this document, sonically bass heavy and infrequently harking back to LCD Soundsystem, it’s a nice opening observe, surly, snarly and danceable, and an excellent video, that by way of Tony Hancock’s The Insurgent, layers one other that means on prime, in case of dissemination.
The Lavatory Physique could also be a brief essay on magnificence requirements, or it could be utterly literal, however importantly, it does function a full verse on the distinction between a swamp and a bathroom, so it’s no less than instructional. Resolutely old-fashioned musically, it’s fantastically bass-heavy and from the Pistols/Lifeless Boys/Damned faculty of acceleration and likewise has a superb and pointed video price awaiting the real unsettling strangeness of the Lavatory Woman alone. Uno II is, for all intents and functions, an ‘80s pop-rock chart hit, a la The Bangles or The Vehicles and sounds nice for it, a story of Xenophobia and self-obsession that may hopefully discover its option to Basic Rock radio with out discover.
Just like the Amyl And The Sniffers album, there’s so much occurring right here, beneath the floor, however you’re not obliged to take that dive, even if you happen to ought to. Finally, the floor sounds nice too, and all tradition meant as artwork has different meanings. Pyramid Of Well being has the association of ‘90s pop-grunge classics, the Husker Du/Pixies motif and it’s employed to glorious impact over lyrics reflecting the promoting out of the hippie dream, or probably a real-time witnessing of the Mescal worm. There are mentions of bodily well being on this and Uno II, maybe an underlying concern after a lot touring.
Soiled Boyz is a discofied arse shaker with a Scissor Sisters swagger and sufficient sass to silence Tik-Tok, in a sane world it could be an enormous hit track or turn into culturally vital after some obscure remix finds it used at each sports activities occasion, however that’s for the long run to resolve, it should put a smile in your face regardless. Drugs For Horses, if you happen to neglect the deeply great lyrics, sounds much like early Go-Betweens, with that very same world-weary longing and damaged need, however there doesn’t look like any songs written by McLennan or Forster about having the liberty to be kicked to demise by horses. The entire lyric deserves to be singled out as immaculate poetry, however ..” I would like your bank card; I must pay a man to get my pineal gland re-calcified..” is next-level brilliance.
There’s a stage of uncapitalised genius at work, because the working means you don’t discover the cross-genre perfection at work. Identical with the aesthetic, the exaggerated postmodernism, all of it simply works.
Waterboy is a good instance of the band’s means to inhabit the characters they sing about from that first-person perspective, whereas the combination of keyboard and guitar riff makes a sound like a beefed-up Elastica, and extra well being issues performed out as character traits. Retailer Coverage, in the meantime, is probably concerning the gentrification of our neighbourhoods by pony-tailed males and their floral-dressed wives, shopping for up low cost housing inventory for revenue with a smile, however it’s undoubtedly a cracking, post-acid-house chemical boogie, one other virtually industrial swipe of excellence in a protracted line. You N33d Me is a dancefloor-packing monster about Poisonous Masculinity, or loneliness, or each.
Finest In Present pt.IV hinges on one more monumental bass line, handclaps, however no precise drums, that also transfer majestically, whereas musing on the vagaries of organised faith. It strikes virtually unnoticed right into a Stooges LA Blues kind saxophone breakdown of surprising however welcome magnificence, skronking all the way in which to church.
The ultimate track River King seems to be a heartfelt love track, a piano-led factor concerning the ease of affection and Chinese language meals, It’s an attention-grabbing option to finish the album. Absolutely Robotic Rock appropriate, an impressed collision of Mark E Smith, James Murphy and Jello Biafra, this assortment of unreconstructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed punk-funk marvel is nearly as good as modernism will get.
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>All phrases by MK Bennett, you could find his creator’s archive right here plus his Twitter and Instagram
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