If Regurgitator is music with a wry smile, then The Drugs is music with a fart joke. Nevertheless, for all of their crassness and at times puerile humour (“An Aussie limp biscuit is a soggy Sao”), The Drugs certainly can draw a chuckle from a listener. The Bold & the Beautiful is full of enough pop culture references to please any aficionado, from the title track’s explanation of the daytime soap’s wacky storylines to a Cold Chisel cover in “No Sense”.

The even-numbered tracks thread the songs together, with The Drugs weaving a ‘concept single’ (of sorts) of an afternoon in front of the TV. The detail in “The Bold & the Beautiful” is extraordinary, leaving a listener certain that the writers of The Bold and the Beautiful are twisted (something about Rick Forrester marrying a woman who is actually his mother?). This detail is infused in a musical collage of “Go Ricki” and “Go Jerry” chants, beats, buzzsaw guitars, rap and “go go go”s (surely a parody of 28 Days’s “Rip It Up”) that hangs surprisingly well. “No Place With Hip Hop” is a pointed take-off of nu-metal bands, with The Drugs able to reproduce the highly processed sound of the genre.

Undoubtedly, there is a lot to like about The Bold & the Beautiful - The Drugs lampoon their pop culture targets incisively and are damn funny. However, the longevity of the single is questionable; once the joke is over, only the music is left. Although there are catchy moments (such as the ironically melodic refrain of “The Bold & the Beautiful”), the music is there to prove a point about something else; it doesn’t stand alone. The Bold & the Beautiful is worthy of a listen or six, but there is nothing left to keep you once the humour grows old.

Track Listing:
1. The Bold & the Beautiful
2. Daytime TV
3. No Sense
4. Welcome back to TV
5. No Place With Hip Hop
6. Tele Surfing
7. Daytime TV Remix

Reviewed by Michael Tran.