Viagra Boys' 'Cave World' Says Nothing New
The Swedish band's attempts at satire are unconvincing, and 'Cave World' ends up representative of modern political music's broader problem
The absurdity of any culture is probably best seen from the outside, but by someone with first-hand experience inside of it. On paper, this puts Sebastian Murphy, tattoo artist by day and frontman of Swedish post-punk/dance-punk band Viagra Boys, in a perfect position to comment on the far-right’s increasing presence in America; born and raised in the US, Murphy knows America, but living in Sweden would give him a more distanced view. In execution, however, Viagra Boys’ third LP Cave World’s commentary on far-right incel culture ends up rather dull and predictable.
Conceptually, Cave World centers around far-right internet culture dripping with toxic masculinity (the unbearable, violent, drug-addled assholes portrayed on tracks like “Punk Rock Loser” and “Ain’t No Thief”) and rife with conspiracies (adrenochrome! microchips!). But Sebastian Murphy’s attempts at satire aren’t sharp enough to be convincing, and Cave World ends up representative of the broader problem with modern political music, in that it’s simply a reminder of everything you already know. Murphy’s mocking portrayal of these stereotypes lacks the urgency or scope to deeply resonate as political art: “He goes to work on his computer/He thinks about his gun at home/One day he’s gonna be a shooter/He’s gonna bring his gun to work,” he yelps on “Troglodyte.” It fails to provoke much listener response beyond Ok, we know. Maybe the point is to make us realize how normalized such behavior has become, but that doesn’t seem to be Murphy’s goal. For the most part, Cave World sounds like a leftist “right wing embarrassments”-type meme page turned into a record: catering to an audience who already agrees with it, and repeating the obvious with little to no depth.
That said, Cave World occasionally makes good, well-presented points. Throughout the record, Murphy explores these characters’ desire to return to basic cave living, but concludes that they wouldn’t actually survive in that environment. “The Cognitive Trade-Off Hypothesis” succeeds by focusing on chimpanzees instead of modern humans, and the fourth verse of closer “Return To Monke” (“A murder takes place in Japan…”) feels quite prophetic, since this album dropped on the day of Shinzo Abe’s assassination. Musically, the Viagra Boys are rhythmically tight, though the polished production isn’t particularly special. Still, it’d be easier to appreciate the musicianship if Cave World wasn’t dynamically squashed to an inch of its life.
That brings us to the sound quality. The mix is very bass-forward, with a thick, vintage-yet-modern sound. However, the compression goes beyond what could reasonably be considered an artistic choice, and detracts from the actual music. Any space or depth in this recording is sucked out, and the streaming/digital master’s aggressive peak limiting results in some occasional digital distortion. The digital file, mastered by Robin Schmidt at 24-96 Mastering, is listenable enough but it’s not at all engaging. Look at the waveforms and they’re a solid brick, but your ears will tell you that first. The vinyl edition cut by Keith Tenniswood at Curve Pusher and pressed in Sweden seems to use the same compressed digital master, and loses whatever detail the file had (not much). Still, the 180g vinyl is flat and mostly quiet; I have the Rough Trade exclusive orange vinyl, but there’s also red, green, and standard black. The direct-to-board foldover jacket and printed inner sleeve are nice, though for an album that prides itself on lyrical content, the lack of a lyrics sheet confuses. The process of cutting compressed digital masters to vinyl usually results in sonically mediocre display items, and needs to stop. Because of that, I recommend sticking with the CD or file, but the vinyl sure looks nice on your wall!
