Welfare Jazz'

Description

Always driven by their satirical vision, they return with their signature sound: a dazzling post-punk that highlights saxophones and takes aim at the social issues that have become normalized today: gender, toxic masculinity, racism, misogyny, and self-absorption. Even the title of the album has a satirical aspect, Welfare Jazz, or the transliteration from Swedish for the aid given to jazz musicians by the government, a banner of classicism and political priorities, including in music. "I'm not good at politics, but everything is political at its core," says singer Sebastian Murphy. "I prefer to write a song about disappointment or defeat, often based on real events and with more meaning. We wrote these songs during a time when I was in a relationship, doing drugs every day, and being a real jerk. I didn't realize it until it was too late, and many of the tracks on this album relate to having set the wrong goals for myself." Notable in the production are Matt Sweeney (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Run the Jewels), Justin and Jeremiah Raisen (Yves Tumor, Kim Gordon, Sky Ferreira), and their former collaborators Pelle Gunnerfeldt and Daniel Fagerström (The Hives, The Knife).