Now six years later with The Voidz' third studio album, Like All Before You, it seems like the band completely forgot what made their last record so successful, so great, and so creative. It is the literal definition of a headscratcher. The Voidz have too many ideas but aren't forming these ideas into actually enjoyable or memorable songs.
Now notably being a musical project for over a decade, The Voidz have pretty much stayed in their lane by making collages of psychedelia, noise, rock, electronics, and experimental music. Helmed and masterminded by The Strokes' Julian Casablancas, they've put out two records thus far, both of which I've reviewed: 2014's Tyranny and 2018's Virtue. Tyranny is a record that has its moments such as the bombastic "Where No Eagles Fly" and the epic, cinematic eleven minute long "Human Sadness," but is overstuffed of songs and musical ideas that don't mesh all that well. Virtue, on the other hand, is quite fantastic for the most part. Yes, this record is also full of many ideas and songs but this time the ideas actually work into enjoyable, catchy, rewarding songs. Some of my favorite songs over the past several years come from this record, "Leave It In My Dreams," "Pink Ocean," "All Wordz Are Made Up," "Wink." So many more I might add! Still to this day, The Voidz were on to something with Virtue and I was excited to hear what they'd do next on another proper full length.
Now six years later with The Voidz' third studio album, Like All Before You, it seems like the band completely forgot what made their last record so successful, so great, and so creative. Despite this new album being much shorter than the previous two albums, clocking in at forty-two minutes instead of the past hour plus runtime, Like All Before You is the literal definition of a headscratcher. The Voidz have too many ideas but aren't forming these ideas into actually enjoyable or memorable songs. These ideas aren't just stuck to a wall to see what sticks, rather these ideas are being mashed into a digital blender and putting that blender into a bathtub. It's like the messy, uncomfortably awkward jumbling of these Frankenstein-like ideas that were on Tyranny, but at least Tyranny had at least some truly memorable highlights. Like All Before You really doesn't have any fully fleshed out songs that are remotely memorable.
Not to say that there aren't any good ideas or notes of enjoyment on the album. "Square Wave" starts out being a steady and pretty new wave track until the warbling, hideously autotuned vocals from Casablancas take over the entire song. He has used autotune successfully in the past, such as "Instant Crush" on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, but this ain't no "Instant Crush." Frankly, the buried mixing is crushing any ability for this song to be redeemable. "Prophecy of the Dragon" is absolutely clunky with it's chugging riffs that border on butt rock, but what makes the song even worse are the vocals that sound like they were done in the first take. "7 Horses" has some moments of brightness like the melodic keys and decent groove, but its autotuned vocals are pretty forgettable and it's annoyingly slow trodden pace makes it a tedious listen. The guitars and core of "Flexorcist" are actually solid. The pretty new wave guitar licks, dreamy instrumental are nice and pleasant. It does completely rip off New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle" to an excruciating level, but if you can ignore that you can at least nod your head with a grin. Despite this, it does not warrant its near seven minute runtime and is completely derivative of anything off of Virtue.
"Perseverance-1C2S" acts as yet more 80's pop fodder that's fairly replaceable. "All the Same" attempts to be more ambitious and the vocal melodies and progression have a chance at being more memorable but its overstuffed instrumental loses any hope of that. I do like the high pitched guitar tones on it though, it's reminiscent of bands like Ratatat. The ugly, hideous and downright stupidly low pitched vocals on "When Will the Time of These Bastards End" ends the album on a more infuriating note. After listening to Like All Before You just once, I feel like my time has been completely wasted. Just this past month alone, there have been plenty of new albums that although may not be great, they are at least interesting and have fully formed songs and ideas. This album, on the other hand, has The Voidz simply playing and goofing around in the studio, just not having a care in the world at making something that's enjoyable to listen to. I'm truly perplexed by those who enjoy this record. I really am. Hell, this "do what you want" attitude may in fact be The Voidz actual motto. But with Virtue, they put these weird genre-clashing ideas into something that is not only memorable and supremely enjoyable, but truly excellent. I can't say the same with Like All Before You. Their creative juice is used up in the idea process and when the band had to actually record something, they simply didn't have any left in the tank to put these ideas together in a way that actually works. Maybe that's why they shamelessly used A.I. to make their album cover. They just simply don't have enough muster or maybe they just don't care. Maybe I shouldn't care either.
My Rating: 4 / 10
Favorite Songs: "Flexorcist"
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