The Future's Void
by EMA
  • Record Label: Matador
  • Release Date: Apr 8, 2014
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
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  1. The 405
    Apr 7, 2014
    90
    The term 'masterpiece' is thrown around a lot.
  2. Under The Radar
    Apr 4, 2014
    85
    This record feels even more pinpoint-focused than her first--perhaps thanks to its recurring themes--and the shaking, distorting sounds she's wrapped around her voice are as beautifully unsettling as her words.
  3. The Line of Best Fit
    Apr 2, 2014
    85
    The Future’s Void is an album that, rather than plead with us to disconnect from the online, asks us to face up to a world with where internet, surveillance, selfies, the NSA aren’t going to go away, and to find a way to continue to interact with this technology in a constructive and positive fashion.
  5. Dusted Magazine
    Jul 30, 2014
    80
    Past Life Martyred Saints was a ferociously personal record in a way that people responded to, but The Future’s Void is just as intense, even though it takes on almost entirely new subject matter and methods.
  6. PopMatters
    Apr 25, 2014
    80
    It simultaneously aims for your head, your ears and occasionally your heart and at times even hits all three. If that’s not the sign of vital, invigorating music, I don’t know what is.
  7. Mojo
    Apr 23, 2014
    80
    Timely stuff. [May 2014, p.88]
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  8. Spin
    Apr 10, 2014
    80
    EMA has crafted a wide-eyed, open-eared, reasonably horrified, digi-noise drone-folk treatise about the soul-sucking, privacy-wrecking qualities of online life.
  9. AllMusic
    Apr 8, 2014
    80
    The Future's Void's often dazzling vignettes aren't quite as striking as Anderson's debut, but they show she's an artist unconfined by any one sound or perspective, and more than capable of engaging minds as well as hearts.
  10. Boston Globe
    Apr 8, 2014
    80
    When the fireworks gently pop and fizzle out in the last breath of EMA’s new album, it feels like the only way to close such an emotionally visceral set of songs.
  11. Exclaim
    Apr 8, 2014
    80
    Through the static and fuzz comes a clarity of sorts, that truth is oftentimes going to be something both comforting and discomforting; it's why The Future's Void serves as the perfect modern day soundtrack.
  12. Rolling Stone
    Apr 8, 2014
    80
    Anderson's excellent second album builds on the stark confessional style of her low-fi 2011 debut, Past Life Martyred Saints.
  13. The Observer (UK)
    Apr 7, 2014
    80
    EMA makes sure these are songs, first and foremost. And they are still personal.
  14. DIY Magazine
    Apr 7, 2014
    80
    The album is an obvious step-up right from the start.
  15. Tiny Mix Tapes
    Apr 7, 2014
    80
    It’s a slicker, more professional, and more abstract matrix-y record that might put off any fans of the singer’s lo-fi confessional work.
  16. New Musical Express (NME)
    Apr 7, 2014
    80
    Her most outward-looking work to date.
  17. NOW Magazine
    Apr 3, 2014
    80
    A huge part of her appeal is how authentically she manages to channel the intensity of adolescent angst, which makes lines that should be cringe-inducing feel too real to critique.
  18. Uncut
    Apr 2, 2014
    80
    Anderson's voice keeps songs like "Smoulder" feeling raw and human. [May 2014, p.73]
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  19. musicOMH.com
    Apr 2, 2014
    80
    There are some quite beautiful and pop-infused moments to be found sprinkled across the album despite the best efforts of EMA and her co-producer Leif Shackleford to keep away from the ears of the commercial fraternity.
  20. Drowned In Sound
    Apr 2, 2014
    80
    The music operates less as an end in itself and more as a counterpoint to the keening, whispering, screeching, gasping voice-as-expression-of-humanity: within the silicon maze, she suggests, there’s a ghost trying to get out.
  21. The A.V. Club
    Apr 8, 2014
    75
    For an album born of such hermetic origins, The Future’s Void resonates with deep concern over the state of the world.
  22. Consequence
    Apr 4, 2014
    75
    Void widens Anderson’s scope enough for her to write the songs her subject matter demands.
  23. Pitchfork
    Apr 10, 2014
    74
    Despite the lyrical clunkers and ill-advised production choices, The Future’s Void has the feel of a real statement, of an artist trying for something new even if she doesn’t always get there.
  24. Q Magazine
    Apr 23, 2014
    60
    Cthulu has the melodrama, but not the bite, of Nine Inch Nails and So Blonde is pointless grunge landfill.... 100 Years achieves so much with just a delicate vocal, minimalist piano and lowing strings that the harder-edged songs seem like empty noise. [May 2014, p.109]
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  25. Slant Magazine
    Apr 2, 2014
    60
    What's most disappointing of all about The Future's Void is that, for all its heady ideas and pretty moments, in almost all ways it's a regression from Anderson's earlier work, a mishmash of half-completed thoughts that fails to ever fully connect.
  26. Pretty Much Amazing
    Apr 7, 2014
    58
    For The Future’s Void, she’s traded in the tarnished grace and drug-ravaged ten-mile stare of her past life, but it’s not always such a fair deal for the listener.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 26 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 26
  3. Negative: 1 out of 26
  1. adhamhany
    Apr 14, 2014
    8
    I like this more than her debut, which is still a good album. This is more emotionally resonant to me, thanks to it's great lyrics aboutI like this more than her debut, which is still a good album. This is more emotionally resonant to me, thanks to it's great lyrics about internet and society. The music and vocal performances are just as great, too.… Full Review »
  2. danceordie
    Apr 8, 2014
    10
    The Future's Void is all Erika M. Anderson. Lyrically, the album is very based in post-internet and, sonically, the most daring since Yeezus.The Future's Void is all Erika M. Anderson. Lyrically, the album is very based in post-internet and, sonically, the most daring since Yeezus. Album of the year contender without doubt.… Full Review »
  3. jyo_tirmaya
    May 31, 2014
    10
    This album is very hip-hypnotic. It's the kind of album that I can get into from beginning to end. It shifts moods and beats and it is allThis album is very hip-hypnotic. It's the kind of album that I can get into from beginning to end. It shifts moods and beats and it is all very well done. Don't know what Pitchfork means about three of the middle songs which puts EMA into industrial mode ala Nine Inch Nails bringing the album down big time. A couple of those songs are my favorites reminding me of the work pj harvey did on her "To Bring You My Love" album (1995). I like whatever lyrics I can make out as I don't have the lyrics on paper buying it on iTunes, but I do like what I can make out. For me, there are some meaningful lyrics on this album which EMA sings very nicely. She does everything on this album - rocks out, does softer songs, has great beats and the nod to Nine Inch Nails is done well and she makes it all her own. Definitely an album I'll still be listening to and going back to within the span of my life which EMA says "we're only in this world for a short time." Bravo!… Full Review »
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