The Voidz - Virtue (Album Review and Rating)

Julian Casablancas has had 5 Top Ten albums in the UK with his band The Strokes. They've even had some top 40 singles such as "Last Nite" and "12:51". Considering they're an American band their success in the US has been limited to 1 top 100 song (charting at #98) and only 4 Top 10 albums with none of them charting higher than #4. On the rock charts they've gained more attention but generally they are a band that's bigger here in the UK.
After their 2013 album "Comedown Machine", Julian was featured on the Daft Punk single "Instant Crush" which I stand by as being their best song and a highlight of Julian's discography. Just a year later Julian re-emerged with his new band Julian Casablancas+The Voidz. Their album "Tyranny" was much more experimental and dark than anything The Strokes had ever done and spawned the semi-successful single "Human Sadness".

4 years later the band are back with a slight name change to simply The Voidz and their new album Virtue was released on 30th March 2018, preceded by 6 singles. The first of which also happens to be the first song on the album, the almost chilled "Leave It In My Dreams". Its guitar line is simple but effectively catchy and the song generally centres around this guitar and the recurring drum pattern and vocals similar to those of Phoenix. All in all it is a very typical indie rock, hipster hit with the clever lyrics from Julian Casablancas. It's almost cute with its hook 'don't call me stupid' and has a short but sweet instrumental that leads into the bridge which is.. strange..

"QYURRYUS" (or 'Curious') follows, with a very different vibe. It's heavier synth line warbles and the vocals are a skilful mess, the guitar cutting through to pronounce the song and auto tune is used almost ironically but to great effect interspersed with the almost storytelling voice. It ends rather abruptly and is followed by the hard hitting "Pyramid of Bones" and that excellent riff and memorable opening drum sequence. The lyrics are really the most pretentious the album gets but you expect it from Casablancas at this point. It's an epic listen but also a surprisingly easy one, a solid headbanger. It's almost comical at points which can be said for lots of the songs here.

"Permanent High School" is next with a slightly hip hop flavored drum sequence similar to how Bastille and The Neighbourhood would play it but somehow far superior (although being superior to those two bands can't be that hard). It's catchy enough to listen to and sticks in your head but it's not necessarily a massive standout on the album. Julian's vocals are pleasant but again precariously pretentious. Definitely a good song.

The next song "ALieNNatioN" is more psychedelic and not dissimilar to Sir Sly songs. It's one of the best on the album for its great melodies and motifs as well as some of Julian's best vocals. The whole vibe is absolutely fantastic and the lyrics fit so well.

"One of the Ones" is instantly hard hitting with its great bass, horns(?!) and riffs. The vocals are really rather odd as are the lyrics. It's good and rather strand alone as too many of these songs are.

"All The Wordz Are Made Up". Where to begin? This song is the best on the album. From the sudden syncopated drum 'mess' that's just beautifully put together to the incredible bass and the fantastically fitting vocals it instantly exceeds all else. The chorus hits and it feels so right, then there's the builds and drops. It's bridge is just great and each section of the song somehow tops itself and its predecessor. This may be the best song of the year so far.

And to follow that is the disappointing misfire "Think Before You Drink" with its super deep lyrics but annoyingly repetitive motifs and instrumentation. Then there's "Wink" which has somehow gained a really bad reputation among critics and fans as the worst on the album. Okay it is the messiest, least well put together, worst produced and most repetitive song but that chorus, I don't know why I like it but I'm drawn in by the vocals and lyrics that somehow remind me of alt-J and their song "Deadcrush". To finish off the trio of songs in the middle of the album that are distinctively worse than the rest of the songs is "My Friend The Walls" with its absolutely brilliant chorus, topping even "Pyramid of Bones" in being just so catchy and almost dancy. It also has utterly awful, long and pointless verses that just don't work, topped with sloppy production.

Luckily the album takes a turn for the better with "Pink Ocean" and its great grooves and cool rhythms. While not one of the best songs on the album it gives the needed resurgence and consistency to provide a good transition into the excellent "Black Hole" with its fast and hard guitar riffs and yet somehow distant feeling production. It's a pumped song with the energy of "Pyramid of Bones" and the catchiness of "Pink Ocean". Maybe not as expert or diverse as it should be its definitely an improvement from the last few songs.

The last three songs of the album are "Lazy Boy", "We're Where We Were" and "Pointlessness". They are possibly more forgettable because of the album's length although all of them are good songs, the former being an indie jam, the middle a more vigorous indie jam and the latter a more instrumentally adept indie jam. Being serious though all three have great production, vocals, lyrics and instrumentation with "We're Where We Were" probably being the weakest.

In my opinion Virtue is an incredible collection of songs that have little to no flow between them. It's a messy album that still manages to be a great album but the highlight on many of these songs are how Julian Casablancas works as a member of the band rather than it all being about him. Yes, some of the songs are pretentious but the vast majority of them are stupendously enjoyable.

9/10

As there are over 14 songs on the album I have a feature on these reviews called To Improve The Tracklist, cutting it down into 10 songs and sometimes changing the order:
-Leave It In My Dreams
-Permanent High School
-ALieNNatioN
-QYURRYUS
-Black Hole
-Pyramid of Bones
-One of the Ones
-All The Wordz Are Made Up
-Lazy Boy
-Pointlessness

Rating the album worst to best:
15. Think Before You Drink
14. We're Where We Were
13. Wink
12. My Friend the Walls
11. Pink Ocean
10. Black Hole
9. Permanent High School
8. Lazy Boy
7. Leave It In My Dreams
6. Pyramid of Bones
5. Pointlessness
4. One of the Ones
3. ALieNNatioN
2. QYURRYUS
1. All The Wordz Are Made Up