Viagra Boys - Cave World
Viagra Boys
Cave World
By: Heidi Bray
At a time when two years have flown by with very little fun, Viagra Boys have given us a party pill to swallow in the form of Cave World.
If nothing else, the third studio album from Swedish punk-rockers Viagra Boys is a good time.
And when you consider that at its core, Cave World is about the pointlessness of life - that’s an accomplishment.
Cave World pours into a blender a wild mix of different elements. Formally ‘post-punk’ but throwing down art-rock, punk, country, rock, dance, and electronica - it’s an eclectic mashup of different sounds bustling with energy.
Top it off with vocalist Sebastian Murphy drawing comparisons to Iggy Pop, with his eccentric delivery and humorous lyricism - you might think Cave World would end up being a bit of a mess.
And it is. A blast of a mess.
The record might be lacking focus here and there. Or have certain laziness to it.
It might be a little heavy-handed in mocking the anti-vaxxers.
And it might have ultimately chosen to take a goofy perspective instead of a mighty crowd-rousing rally cry at the podium, but the band is having fun, and you will too.
From the chaotic saxophone on the opener "Baby Criminal," you might wonder if they can keep the energy up throughout the record, and admirably, they do.
Holding the majority of the songs together is the always under-appreciated bass guitar, the driving groove behind most of the album's best songs. No more prominent than on "Ain't No Thief," the bass of Henrik Höckert is an automated turnstile - constantly pushing the crowd forward.
"With this whole pandemic, you got to see a lot of these crazy ideas that people have about what's going on in the world." - Vocalist Sebastian Murphy, Flood Magazine, 2022
The album teems with comical concepts, and the lyrics of each song feel like they're being sung directly from the diary of a conspiracy theorist. From terrified singing about Adrenochrome on "Creepy Crawlers" to the paranoid ramblings on the album's finale, "Return to Monke," Cave World plays like a snapshot of the insane and painfully believed concepts that whizzed around during the pandemic.
You won't be able to help imagine the live show when listening to Cave World.
It's that exciting.
And if you're envisioning a wild live show - you'd be right. Known for a dynamic and, let's call it, 'active' live performance, the liveliness of Cave World rightfully connects our minds to a place where we're all together.
Cave World sounds like if Queens of the Stone Age made a dance album.
It sounds like the Butthole Surfers got their shit together and made a proper record.
The album's immediacy and focus on the now might hurt its re-listenability in the future, but that's precisely the point. It feels like we feel during the pandemic. All the while making us want to stand up, dance, and laugh.
At the same time, reflecting on Cave World in five years might make us shake our collective heads at the scary thoughts humans are capable of when they simply have too much time on their hands.
At a time when two years have flown by with very little fun, Viagra Boys have given us a party pill to swallow in the form of Cave World. And for that, we can forgive the subtle faults scattered across the record as the unwavering vigor and enthusiasm triumph its minor lapses.
