Viagra Boys are back with flirtatious sax, satire one-liners, and eccentric vocals.
Explosive intro ‘Baby Criminal’ opens up a can of worms, as Viagra Boys unleash a frenzy of instruments, building on their stapled touch of sensational sax and erratically screamed vocals from frontman Sebastian Murphy.
Followed by a sequence of tranquil sounds, ‘Cave Hole’ replicates artificial sounds of the sea, and is a short breakdown of delicate textures before Viagra Boys boastfully bounce you back to their soaring pace. ‘Troglodyte’ is the second single release off the album, a hyper-charged track with lyrics spouting an evolutionary guide, blended with nudges about today’s society spending too much time sat behind their computer screens. ‘Troglodyte’ is one of many album standouts and sees Murphy spit out signature grunts and screams.
‘Cave World’ comes as the band’s third studio album, following last year’s ‘Welfare Jazz’, ‘Cave World’ paints rock’n’roll through a rose-tinted glass – distorted, warped and just completely fascinating. Viagra Boys have built their acclaim on the prefix that they’re doing things differently, having built an army of fans from their projects, Viagra Boys weave in hints of electronica, intense bursts of sax, and angsty spoken-word vocals across this soaring new album.
Fourth track ‘Punk Rock Loser’ is joined with a Western themed music video. Busting out some wonky-looking line dancing, ‘Punk Rock Loser’ is of course seen off with the bang of a pistol in the distance. ‘Punk Rock Loser’ has a subtle wit and irony to it, I guess, between the video and the sturdy tempo of this track – it’s easily the least punk tune you’ve heard in your life. But that’s the real beauty of it: you really give into the loser intel of it all, whist feeling the urge to consistently nod along. It’s a total earworm, with a sturdy hook.
Wired ‘Ain’t No Thief’. This edgy track once again flings the listener back into the ring of doom, it’s a punching run of adrenaline that appears out of nowhere. At this point into the album, you will have grasped the theme by now. ‘Cave World’ offers a burst of three interludes – ‘Cave Hole,’ ‘Globe Earth,’ and ‘Human Error’ – each bringing you down to the solace of peace through muffled sounds and minimal synth.
Lyrically ambiguous, ‘Cave World’ is an album that questions an array of mind-boggling conspiracies. The album channels Viagra Boys’ sharp wit through and through – the bluesy ‘Big Boy’, for example, is just another glimpse into their humour. It plays off on all the assets you’d imagine associating with any adult, yet its flirtatious flow and vocal delivery suggests the complete opposite. Somehow, you just can’t take a word of it seriously, as though you’re questioning the “big boy,” façade, an evidently intentional playful touch. ‘Big Boys’ is seen off with a concluding verse from noted Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson.
Concluding with theexplosive ‘Return To Monke,’ Viagra Boys close ‘Cave World’ off with comical digs at today’s society, with lyrics like: “don’t take that vaccine man, they’ll turn you into a computer…” Viagra Boys stamp a great big watermark over this album as they engrave their aesthetic right down to its core. ‘Cave World’ sees them bounce back with another grandiose LP just a year after their last – true miracle workers.
8/10
Words: Laviea Thomas
