Viagra Boys

★★★ Welfare Jazz YEAR0001.

CD/DL/LP

Spam filters beware! Postpunk Swedish six return.

Viagra Boys have made a name for themselves over the past few years with their frenzied live performances. But with the sweatbox gigs in which they excel on hold, this second album is an opportunity to show there’s more to them than the fleeting thrill of an on-stage charge. They take it. Less reliant on the spluttery punk thrills of 2018’s

Street Worms, Welfare Jazz finds them dropping through the gears and settling on a sound that often resembles the frazzled nocturnal grooves magicked up during Josh Homme’s Desert Sessions. They do it best on Into The Sun, frontman Sebastian Murphy’s lip-curling drawl taking melodic shape over an unhurried psych-rock jam. When the shackles are thrown off, as on the gloriously deranged funk of Girls & Boys, it makes for an impactful offroad diversion. An impressive second showing, Viagra Boys have found order in the chaos.