Grotesque, swaggering, and sharply self-aware, ‘Welfare Jazz’ saw Viagra Boys expand their caustic worldview without losing any of their bite. Following the feral breakthrough of ‘Street Worms’, the band leaned deeper into groove and texture, fusing post-punk grime with motorik propulsion, no-wave abrasion, and an ever-present sense of sleaze. Saxophone, synths, and percussion rubbed up against pounding basslines and snapping drums, creating a sound that lurched and strutted rather than sprinted. The music felt physical and unsteady, designed to move bodies even as it unsettled them.

Lyrically, ‘Welfare Jazz’ turned inward as much as it lashed outward. Sebastian Murphy’s writing circled anxiety, guilt, and contradiction, rejecting the idea of moral absolutes in favour of messy honesty. The album confronted toxic masculinity, racism, misogyny, classism, and self-obsession not from a position of purity, but from within the wreckage itself. There was humour here, but it was uneasy and self-lacerating, used to expose rather than deflect. Instead of offering resolution, the record embraced uncertainty, suggesting that survival meant motion rather than clarity. Swaying, staggering, and defiantly alive, ‘Welfare Jazz’ captured Viagra Boys at a moment of growth — looser, darker, and more human — proving that discomfort could still be a powerful engine for connection and release.

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