Nerf Herder

IV

[3.5/5]

Not much has changed in the 14 years since Nerf Herder began chronicling the trials and tribulations of the geeky and undersexed. On IV, singer/guitarist/chief perv Parry Gripp is as creepy as ever and still a perpetual 14-year-old, singing about peeping at chicks with spyscopes (“Golfshirt (Part 2)”) and using every imaginable inappropriate sea lion innuendo to describe sex (“(Stand By Your) Manatee”). Production-wise, NH have never sounded better, and Gripp’s humor still packs plenty of insider ’80s puns (lots of mentions of allowance-spending, unicorn shirts and high-school dance phobias), though none are as snarky or bang-on as the Bacardi-flavored wit of “Sorry” from the band’s 1996 self-titled debut. Still, IV has its classic Gripp lines like, “You sure look pretty, it’s been so long/ Come on back to my basement where I live with my mom,” from “High School Reunion.” (OGLIO) Casey Lynch