Music Reviews: Coco Jones and Viagra Boys
"Why Not More?" and "Viagr Aboys"

'Why Not More?' by Coco Jones
Coco Jones' long-awaited debut album is finally here, and it "places her firmly in R&B's upper echelons," said Maura Johnston in Rolling Stone. The 27-year-old former Disney teen star has been putting out singles and EPs for a dozen years, and she won a Grammy last year. But only with this "sumptuous" package has she established the range she favors. "The album's sonic touchpoints are varied—Timbaland-inspired electro squelches, Quiet Storm synth blankets, swaying Caribbean beats—but Jones' steady presence brings them all together in a cohesive whole." On "AEOMG," she cribs from Luther Vandross. On "Taste," she makes the chorus of Britney Spears' "Toxic" her own. "Jones isn't scared to push boundaries, whether it's her own or R&B as a genre," said Puah Ziwei in NME. Of course, she's "at her finest when her voice is the star of the show," as on the Jazmine Sullivan–like "Here We Go." But whether she's throwing herself into a ballad or riding a reggae groove, "the authentic vulnerability in her vocals" cuts through. Why Not More? may be "just the beginning for this star in the making."
'Viagr Aboys' by Viagra Boys
"There's something so refreshingly '90s about Viagra Boys' slacker attitude," said Karly Quadros in Paste. With their fourth album, the Swedish post-punk band trades the conspiracy-bro satire of 2022's Cave World for "a more general sense of absurdism," with wellness culture the chief target of frontman Sebastian Murphy's lyrics. Across this 11-song set, "the body takes on a Wile E. Coyote–level capacity for corporal punishment." It's stepped on, filled with gasoline and warm beer, and even contracts monkeypox, all while the band churns out "big bodacious synth riffs" and "buzz saw bass" grooves. The subjects of these songs are "the kinds of guys that are aggrieved but ultimately powerless" because they can't get out of their own way, said Drew Gillis in The A.V. Club. Yet the characters are sharply drawn, "showing unexpected depth." In "Man Made of Meat," the dude Murphy is giving voice to preens outside a fast-food joint, flexing his muscles, and with Murphy's delivery, "you can hear the veins popping in his forehead." You can also sense the insecurity beneath the foolish machismo, "which actually makes him endearing."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Millet: Life on the Land – an 'absorbing' exhibition
The Week Recommends Free exhibition at the National Gallery showcases the French artist's moving paintings of rural life
-
Thomasina Miers picks her favourite books
The Week Recommends The food writer shares works by Arundhati Roy, Claire Keegan and Charles Dickens
-
6 laid-back homes for surfers
Feature Featuring a home near a world-renowned surf spot in Hawaii and a house built to withstand the elements in South Carolina
-
Twelfth Night or What You Will: a 'riotous' late-summer jamboree
The Week Recommends Robin Belfield's 'carnivalesque' new staging at Shakespeare's Globe is 'joyfully tongue-in-cheek'
-
Hostage: Netflix's 'fun, fast and brash potboiler'
The Week Recommends Suranne Jones is 'relentlessly defiant' as prime minister Abigail Dalton
-
Music reviews: Chance the Rapper, Cass McCombs, and Molly Tuttle
Feature "Star Line," "Interior Live Oak," and "So Long Little Miss Sunshine"
-
Film reviews: Eden and Honey Don't!
Feature Seekers of a new utopia spiral into savagery and a queer private eye prowls a high-desert town
-
Critics' choice: Three chefs fulfilling their ambitions
Feature Kwame Onwuachi's grand second act, Travis Lett makes a comeback, and Jeff Watson's new Korean restaurant