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Cave World
Outwardly post-ironic eighties pastiche bullshit, these canny observers of the human condition in the Social Media Age transcend their jokey name. Think Tom Waits channeled by Devo via Trent Reznor’s downward spiral. The Swedes conceived Cave World while everyone sequestered in their own caves during the COVID quarantine days. Each track serves as an indictment of modern man-children, be it hipsters in “Punk Rock Loser,” tin foil red hats in “Creepy Crawlers,” or internet tough guys in “Troglodyte.” No wave sax squawks punch through death disco beats, frosty keyboards evoke their Scandinavian home, Sebastian Murphy rants and raves like Jesus Lizard’s David Yow if he got brain-poisoned by the internet instead of the Reagan years. When Murphy claims “I Ain’t No Thief,” you’d almost believe him if his tongue wasn’t stabbing through his cheek.