Welfare Jazz CD

Swedish post-punk combo Viagra Boys have always been a unique, hard-to-pigeonhole proposition. Even so, they've really pushed the boat out on Welfare Jazz, their third full length, offering up a set that crams more disparate musical elements and influences into each track than some bands achieve in a lifetime. While their familiar grizzled guitars, weighty post-punk rhythms and power-pop indie sounds remain in-tact, they're variously fused with wayward jazz horn s, throbbing new wave synthesizers, oddball music concrete style sample lifts, the low-slung weight of dub disco, the country-fried air of Americana, and the kind of anthemic fare famously served up by the Futureheads. The result a quirky but rather brilliant mixture of sounds and styles that sounds increasingly inspired with each successive listen.