Virtue by The Voidz is an album so crazy it works [Review]

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Chris Gillett |
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Virtue is a crazy album. American rock band Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas and his second band The Voidz released their weird and wonderful debut Tyranny back in 2014; the six-piece experimental rockers take things even further on this new record.

Leave It In My Dreams eases you into a false sense of security, with its disco beat and mellow keys and Casablancas’ playful melodic phrasing, to create a Strokes-ian pop banger. But from this point on, it gets weird – really weird. 

QYURRYUS (pronounced “curious”) fuses deep goth techno with wailing guitars and middle-eastern vocal stylings, and once you get over the hilarious autotune-heavy outro, it’s surprisingly enjoyable to listen to.

There are moments of lo-fi 90s hip hop in the incredibly aggressive standout tracks Pink Ocean and ALieNNatioN, and thunderous moments in songs such as Pyramid of BonesOne Of The Ones and We’re Where We Were.

All The Wordz Are Made Up has a funk/calypso vibe, with one of the most explosively catchy choruses ever, before Wink merges Hawaiian surf-rock with a lo-fi euro-techno beat, and Black Hole creates a more grimy noise-rock sound, channelling the same powerful momentum as The Prodigy. In short, Virtue is insane – and brilliant.

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