Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys

Punk Rock – Released April 25, 2025 – 11 songs, 37 mins

ROZ

This week’s review is a voyage into the bizarre, as Too Sweet Reviews takes a look at Swedish post-punk band Viagra Boys (yes, you read that right) and their fourth studio album Viagr Aboys. This will be a TSR first as neither of us have heard of this band before – a real treat. From the surface level, a perhaps-too-silly band name and very uncreative (perhaps lazy at best) album title doesn’t quite give me the premonitions that we’re diving into anything very worthwhile here. What I uncovered, however, is that these details only served as a means to bring my guard down and open myself up to the absolute insanity that was soon to come. 

If it was not for the fact that we’ve reviewed the likes of 100 gecs and SOFT PLAY in the past, I honestly don’t know how my brain would be able to process and digest the combination of words, imagery and phrases thrown at me through Viagr Aboys respectable 11-song, 37-minute run-time. Luckily for me, surrealism is a flavor that we’ve already tasted many times in the past, even if not at the levels found on this particular album. Bags of meat, foot fetishes, Swedish politics, death by horse stomping, Elvis impersonations, and incredibly misinformed World War II facts are just a few of the various topics that lead vocalist Sebastian Murphy dives into. Each bundle of ridiculous lyricism is placed on top of hard hitting and fast-paced rock arrangements which I find damn near catchy enough to make me zone out and forget how unhinged everything truly is. From the keys, to the guitar, to the drums, to the brass and wind instruments – everything finds its rightful place in the tightly woven production spearheaded by the band members as well as another talented Swede, Pelle Gunnerfeldt. As somebody who’s favourite pop group of all time is Swedish, it was refreshing (if not a little alien) to move away from that beautiful 4 lettered band and rather towards something of the modern era.

The deeper I went and the more I chewed on what was actually being said, I started to realize the hidden undertones and symbolism strewn across Viagr Aboys. Underneath the talk of goblins and foot fetishes, Man Made of Meat speaks on the issues of hyper-materialism and over-consumerism. The high energy guitar and catchy melodies of The Bog Body may be the soundtrack to the thought of finding a dead body in a mystical bog (the ridiculousness of this concept is not lost on me by the way), but really one could take it as a metaphor for the insecurities and obsessions of a partner. Medicine for Horses, one of the more sonically pleasing of the bunch with its Arcade Fire-like inflections, could be seen as a metaphor for the co-dependence and emotional support shared between partners. Even You N33d Me’s cringy, obnoxious protagonist serves as a personal caricature of Murphy’s own tumultuous and overly embarrassing past.

All of these examples are merely a product of how insane society has become in the modern age. When you have the ability to bear witness to a news cycle as crazy as our current one, the music conceived in that age will promptly follow suit (well, Uno II is basically just talking about his dog…but not everything has to be deep, you know). Viagr Aboys is a fever dream of nonsense that has deeper connotations at a second glance. Feel free to pick it apart or, alternatively, sit back and enjoy the high-octane absurdity it provides.

Overall Rating: 8.2/10

Favourite Song: You N33d Me

LUNDI

Insanity and absurdity rule the air this week. TSR review a band from Sweden that isn’t ABBA? What the heck?? Viagra Boys, somehow even stranger than their name, have toiled in the underground and cult music scenes for nearly ten years. TSR may be late to the party but that makes the dissection of their fourth studio album all the more interesting. Consider me a fresh mind ready to be warped amongst the chaos and hilarity. 

If you’ve already heard this album and you follow along to this blog, you may be quite surprised to see me fawning over it. If you’re new to the blog well let’s just say I’m a huge proponent in emotional connection being the driving force of what makes music best. Or at least I was because Viagra Boys sucked me in and spit me out with a modified outlook. See, it’s not exactly emotion I crave but intellect. I just want to be taken on a path that invigorates the brain no matter the subject. The light just needs to turn on, finding a deeper connection is a bonus. Now I’d have no problem going down the rabbit hole and telling you how I see this album narrative as a psychotic break or spiral into a dream state, a visceral debate of what’s real and what’s fake in the ever changing world but on the flip side I’ve learned the tin foil hat isn’t needed to sell an album that just hits as emphatically on the surface alone as Viagr Aboys. The wit and sharpened language is perfectly unique and insanely hilarious, making for a thrill ride album whether you believe it has deeper meaning or not. Whether satirical or solemn, ultimately it doesn’t really matter.

Viagra Boys off the wall approach certainly captivates and no topic is off base. It’s an unfiltered depiction of the mundane and obscure. Lyrics touch on Only Fans, Health Fads, War History, and Ancient Preservation with full songs dedicated to a dog’s perspective on their veterinarian and a narrators experience with becoming a member of a mythical gang. It really is near impossible to do this album justice with a written review, it’s just something you need to experience. Viagr Aboys is music’s version of an episode of I Think You Should Leave. Humorous and menacing at the same time.

The absurdist lyricism doubles as the foundation that truly makes the album work because musically it is a genre cluster fuck. If you removed the lyrics and listened to the backing tracks only this would be such a messy off structure display of music. Like hearing all stages of a mainstream festival playing at once. It’s madness honestly but it just works due majorly in part to the lyricism. Traditional rock and bass riffs flow into synths and heavy percussion which finds its way to flutes and saxophone. The full deployment of a marching band is used and never at the same time or in any order that would seem to make sense. It goes so far to Illogical that it becomes logical. I have no idea how producer Pelle Gunnerfeldt is still sane.

Now the album isn’t without faults and could have certainly scored higher if it stuck the landing a little better. As much as I am overly invested in the hunt for Poseidon’s trident it’s hard to argue Best In Show IV is quality music and while a piano ballad to close out an album is a choice I’m on board with in typical album layout, I’m not sure River King was right choice for the tone that this album gives off. You definitely hate to see an album struggle to close but the sophisticated hilarity and downright fun from the first nine tracks is impossible to drag too far down.

Frantic, fun and foolish. Viagra Boys Viagr ABoys is as ridiculous as those four words strung together while also being the smartest dive into debauchery you may ever hear. 

Overall Rating: 8.1/10

Favourite Song: You N33d Me

REID

This week has TSR diving into the fourth studio album from Swedish punk rockers, Viagra Boys. Not to be confused with 90’s dance party icons, Venga Boys, the six-man unit is comprised of five Swedes and an American. Lead singer, Sebastian Murphy, hails from California and is the surefire leader of a group who have become known for their humour and satire to go with their raucous rock sound. viagr aboys is my first experience with the group and while it’s easy to look at their name, listen to a couple tracks and label them unserious, there’s more than meets the eye.

Exhibit A – Man Made of Meat. The album’s opening song and consequently the first I ever heard by VB. Let’s just say it made quite an impression. Here’s the third verse:

I'm subscribed to your mom's OnlyFans,
I spent five bucks a month to get pictures of her flappy giblets.
And I spent another ten dollars a month to chat with her on the AI chat program,
It feels great.

There’s no denying the hilarity. Clever use of the word giblets. Gets me every time. The song’s chorus closes out like this: 

I am a man that's made of meat,
You're on the internet looking at feet.
I hate almost everything that I see,
And I just wanna disappear.

It feels a three-minute joke. And it is! But those last two lines carry a lot of weight. The harsh reality of these puns is they’re true. The OnlyFans, feet and other subscription markets like this on the internet are outrageous. Artificial intelligence is growing at a terrifying rate. Young people don’t want to work. Society is degrading right in front of our eyes. Anyway, what else is there to do but laugh it off with the boys? The album is filled with silliness, some more deep than others. Like their previous record, Cave World, where they poke fun at far-right conspiracy theorists and toxic masculinity; they hit heavy issues with sarcasm.

The band’s makeup of vocals-guitar-bass-drums-synth-saxophone is a little outside the traditional punk norm. The result is a group with a much deeper toolkit and more variety for the listener to chew on. Bass often controls the rhythm and they’re not afraid to offer up an unpolished sound with scratchy guitar solos, out of tune brass and Murphy’s dynamic vocal styles.

The rating took a hit because of too many empty calorie tunes on the back half. I understand the inclusion of Medicine for Horses and River King for album pace but neither hit. Murphy’s lyrics on Waterboy meander too much. Unpolished is fine but this feels unfinished. The only one that stacks up to the first half is You N33d Me.

I’ll wrap this up with two observations and a fun fact. First - Murphy’s baritone vocal reminds me a lot of Peter Dreimanis from Toronto band, July Talk.Dirty Boyz in particular. Second – the ‘hangin round’ lyric from Pyramid of Health is straight out of Marcy Playground’s ‘Sex and Candy’. Throwback jam. Finally - VB supported Queens of the Stone Age on their 2023 tour. That’s a fun lineup.

On the surface, Viagra Boys are a fun band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Once you dig deeper, you’ll realize they’re hitting some of the murkiest issues in society with a tongue-in-cheek approach. With synth and saxophone in the mix, these Swedes offer a different feel to your standard punk rock.

Overall Rating: 7.0/10

Favourite Song: Man Made of Meat