Summary:The second full-length release for Julian Casablancas and the band was produced by Shawn Everett and its first as The Voidz (dropping "Julian Casablancas+").
There’s so much to take in, it’s almost hard to know if it’s even any good. Between these sensory overloads, however, we get the funky bop of ‘All Wordz Are Made Up’ and the acoustic lullaby of ‘Think Before You Drink’.
Casablancas may not have many answers to his big questions other than expressing a desire to escape it all, but the combination of musical dynamism and lyrical desperation makes Virtue a cathartic experience, if not an especially comforting one.
This is Casablancas unwinding and having fun and there's a lot to enjoy here. He's never sounded better (or as versatile) as a vocalist and a lot of this album ("All Wordz Are Made Up," "Lazy Boy") is genuinely great. He may be trying too hard, but at least he's trying to do something different.
Pink Ocean locks into an appealing groove; Think Before You Drink is tuneful enough, if an abomination lyrically. But even the biggest Strokes devotee will find precious little worth hearing here.
Julian just saved rock music again (with due credit to the rest of the Voidz who are all brilliant musicians in their own right). Virtue is anJulian just saved rock music again (with due credit to the rest of the Voidz who are all brilliant musicians in their own right). Virtue is an instant classic bursting with diverse, new ideas that display all the creativity Julian's been trying record since First Impressions of Earth perfectly blended with the gorgeous melodies and brilliant solos that characterize his more popular work. Every song seems to exist in several genres at once or outside traditional genre entirely (other than the fact that of course they're using rock instruments). 15 songs with no filler! Though I have a few least favorites like One of the Ones you'll find others who consider it their favorite, and there are no obvious throwaways. The album gets better with every listen and each song is so different you can just listen on repeat without it ever feeling stale. I feel sorry for the idiotic critics who gave this mediocre reviews, they'll be kicking themselves for discarding music this important (reminds me of when Pitchfork gave Discovery a 6.4).…Expand
Fantastic album, pushing the whole genre of alternative and indie rock forward. It may seem too experimental at some points, but I’m confidentFantastic album, pushing the whole genre of alternative and indie rock forward. It may seem too experimental at some points, but I’m confident that in few years, put into perspective we will find it perfectly fitting into vaporwave-influenced aesthetics of the decade. Vivid instrumentation, wild guitar effects and distortions, synths, various electronic applications and techniques – all of it gives us individual, inimitable style that may shape the whole new genre of future rock. This LP doesn’t let you get bored – each song is a different, eclectic, weird experience, from indie-poppy Go-Teamesque “All Words Are Made Up”, through lo-fi/symphonic “Pointlessness”, space rock “Qyurryus” up to (and I would never believe such mixture is possible!) post-punk/rave “Black Hole”, with no filler-songs and no stops. It’s a confusing wild ride that I recommend to everyone.…Expand
Favorite tracks:
Pyramid of Bones, Wink, Permanent High School, My Friend the Walls, ALieNNatioN, All Wordz are Made up
Least favoriteFavorite tracks:
Pyramid of Bones, Wink, Permanent High School, My Friend the Walls, ALieNNatioN, All Wordz are Made up
Least favorite track: Think Before You Drink
Some overall thoughts:
I’m mostly confident Ill never love the album more than Tyranny, as it will never remove me from our world and transport me to an entirely new place in quite the same way. That said, I love Virtue a great deal and think it is full of bangers from start to finish. Every song I heard from Virtue live was incredible and the best, most charismatic, energetic performance from Julian I’ve ever seen. There’s not a single song I don’t like and considering it’s only 4 minutes shorter than Tyranny it certainly feels a lot shorter. I think the Voidz have a great future ahead of them and I only expect their quest to bridge the Void of experimental art rock with the pop music of the strokes to result in increasingly challenging, dense, and brilliant music…Expand
This album is so much fun. Very psychedelic and unconventional yet still remaining accessible. A minor lull near the end but the extraordinaryThis album is so much fun. Very psychedelic and unconventional yet still remaining accessible. A minor lull near the end but the extraordinary highlights in the first half more than make up for it. The band hits so many different styles and genres there's bound to be a different favorite track for everyone…Expand
This a really solid experimental rock record, anchored by peak-form tunewriting from Julian Casablancas.
I'm a longtime Strokes fan, and IThis a really solid experimental rock record, anchored by peak-form tunewriting from Julian Casablancas.
I'm a longtime Strokes fan, and I admit to feeling baffled by Julian's music post- first two Strokes albums. Julian is so good at doing a specific thing--writing soaring, pathos-inducing, up and mid tempo garage rock ballads--that it seems like a waste not to keep doing that. His songwriting since Room on Fire could be defined on a spectrum, from "experimental Julian" to "throwback Julian," the latter accounting for most of the Strokes later hits, as well as the catchier material on Phrazes for the Young.
This album sees these two songwriting urges cohabitating pleasantly and without nasty incident, for the most part (Black Hole isn't for me). The essential, base metric of Julian's tunewriting remains the arpegio and the riff, as it has remained ever since the first Strokes album. But within this framework The Voidz add elements of noise and metal, industrial, world music, dance music, and hip hop. ALieNNationN sounds like a Depeche Mode song remixed by J Dilla; the instrumental for All Wordz Are Made Up sounds like it could be a b-side from The College Dropout.
It's interesting to read the critical reaction to this album. Other user reviews point out the critical hate that Julian's later work has received. I'm not sure if this is necessarily the case for this album; critics seems to be appreciating it. Which is interesting. This is just my opinion, but I think this partly has to do the recent string of releases by indie stars of the 2000s--Jack White, MGMT, specifically--that have veered experimental. Kitchen-sink experimentation seems to be the late-career move of choice for these (formerly) indie-ballad artists, and this year they seem to have perfected the formula. This is more hypothesizing... but is indie making a mini comeback this year? And if so, is this the template that they are utilizing? I hope so. The days of carefree indie balladry are over; that doesn't mean we cant have ballads, it just means they need to be cut with a heavy dose of late 2010s embrace of the weird. Which is perfectly cool with me. This is a rewarding listen and an aesthetic treat, and I look forward to Julian/Voidz next move.…Expand
