Viagra Boys - viagr aboys

‘Man Made of Meat’, the first single from Swedish nonsense-punks Viagra Boys’ fourth album ‘viagr aboys’, includes: a mention of Chandler Bing, frontman Sebastian Murphy burping into the mic, and at least one mention of goblins. So far, so Viagra Boys.

Follow-up single ‘Uno II’ was the first hint that things might be a little bit different this time around. Sure, it’s a song from the perspective of a dog with rotten teeth, but it also features an eerie flute instrumental and a distinctly stripped back sound compared to the band’s usual output. The logical sonic continuation of ‘The Cognitive Trade-off Hypothesis’ from 2022’s ‘Cave World’, it’s a refreshing change of pace and the choice to put it front and centre as one of the album’s lead singles shows a band who are keen to keep evolving.

This same spirit of experimentation reigns across the album as a whole. ‘Medicine for Horses’ grapples with mental illness (but still finds room to pine for the days when you could “pay a guy to get his horse to stomp you on the head”), and album closer ‘River King’ is an out and out love song, complete with piano.