Album Review: The Voidz - Virtue (2018)
Well it took me an age to get this one out but finally here we are with another album of the week (maybe it should be album of the month at this point), Virtue by The Voidz.
I was first introduced to The Voidz when they dropped the video for ‘All Wordz are Made Up’ at the beginning of March. That video is a bat shit crazy 80's / 90's nostalgia trip, the kind of thing that you might find yourself watching at 4 am following a night of excess. Whilst the song and video were a little out of my comfort zone I found myself falling in love with its cowbell and synth groove intro and old school poppy vocal hooks. It was a nostalgia trip (not even necessarily back to music I particularly liked) whilst still managing to sound entirely fresh and new. I quickly discovered that the album Virtue and its track-list had already been announced and a number of other songs (‘Leave it in My Dreams’, ‘Qyurryus’ and ‘Pointlessness’) had already been shared. So, with my interest piqued, I decided to check them out.
Compared to ‘All Wordz are Made Up’ I was surprised at how relatively ordinary ‘Leave it in My Dreams’ initially sounded. The song begins with a breezy guitar intro and laid back vocals (reminding me slightly of The Strokes, we’ll come back to that) and just plods along at its own pace, seemingly not too bothered if you’re really listening or not. However, about 2 mins in it throws in the ear-worm vocal hook “somebody’s taking much too long, somebody’s taking much too long, don’t call me stupid, don’t call me stupid” before launching into some weird jagged, jangly guitar then settling back into its seemingly too cool to care vibe but with a new found energy to the vocals. That was enough to take me from ‘meh’ to ‘oh yeah’ and I have to say it’s really a great song.
Next up was ‘Qyurryus’, a song that is both curious in name and in nature. It’s not often that a song comes along that is so different to anything else I’ve heard that it completely stops me in my tracks. The best example I can think of is ‘Altlantis to Interzone’ by Klaxons which blew my mind when I first heard it and ‘Qyurryus’ absolutely does the same thing. The song opens with droning synth, electronic drum machine rolls and smashes and a heavily distorted guitar lick that I can only describe as a trumpeting elephant from hell. Bizarrely this results in quite an eastern vibe, especially when the vocals kick in, but also has an 80's Knight Rider feel. Those distorted guitar licks are peppered throughout in a delightful staccato fashion and the song is full of weird auto-tune vocals and the endlessly cool sing along “hot track, hot dress, undressing this hot mess, getting off on the west side, all day on a roof on the west side”. This is the song that got me seriously excited for the album release.
After a few listens to ‘Qyurryus’, and not before taking a moment to collect my jaw from the floor, I put ‘Pointlessness’ on. It’s at this point I notice the recurring theme throughout these songs, there is no theme. They are all very different and for the most part eschew any single genre. ‘Pointlessness’ is the last song on the album; it’s slow, organ driven and with repeated lines such as “what does it matter?” and “I believe that you’re gonna be forgotten” certainly lives up to its name. It’s quite long at over 5 mins but builds to a massive and immensely satisfying crescendo. Truly epic.
Before the release of Virtue we were treated to one more song in ‘ALieNNatioN’. This track has quite an urban soul vibe with dreamy vocals and moments of funk guitar. This really reinforced my excitement for the release of the album and at this point I had no idea what to expect from the rest of the record.
So, after a few weeks of waiting, which to my mind felt like months, Virtue was finally released on 30th March and at the first opportunity I had I devoured it. Tracks one and two were ‘Leave it in my Dreams’ and ‘Qyurryus’, a great one two punch opening to the album, but I was desperate for new material and track three ‘Pyramid of Bones’ was the first new song and true to my expectations, I got something completely unexpected (does that make sense?). It opens with a crunching metal-like riff which sounds like the strings are stretching and ready to tear free from their shackles before finding a lighter rockier groove. It jumps between these lighter and heavier moments effortlessly and blends in moments of thrash, hardcore, emo and melodic rock. Nothing I heard up to this point had prepared me for ‘Pyramid of Bones’ and I effing love it.
“If I told you the truth it would be a lie”. A great opening line to a great song. After the heaviness of ‘Pyramid of Bones’ we get the soothing ‘Permanent High School’ to treat our wounds and for the first minute I could easily have been fooled into thinking this was an Eels song. Whilst doing a very good Eels impression (intentional or not) it’s much more than that and features hugely diverse moments including falsetto vocals, floaty synths and an ethereal guitar solo.
Next up another previously heard track, ‘AlieNNatioN’, which I can just imagine listening to on a lazy sunny Sunday road trip and cannot wait for that opportunity. It’s followed by ‘One of the Ones’ which has one of the best intros so far opening with a groovy, chunky, guitar riff which perpetuates the whole song but is punctuated with some strange vocal and musical flourishes. It’s all about that main riff though.
From here we go straight into ‘All Wordz are Made Up’ which again I’ve already talked about. I love the section where the singer belts out “In my mind, I get up and I try, it’s not that hard. Holding you to those standards, they’re just too high. I don’t want everything or understand anything”. What a great melody.
Up to this point there has been a real flow to the album and despite the seemingly disparate styles and genres on offer nothing has really felt out of place. Unfortunately ‘Think Before You Drink’ breaks this run of form and whilst I still quite like it the sudden change to folksy acoustic stylings with strained vocals is very jarring and takes me out of the zone every time.
Forgivingly ‘Think Before You Drink’ is very short but I do wish the album went straight from ‘All Wordz are Made Up’ into the exotic island vibes of ‘Wink’. The main riff is just an absolute delight and repeats throughout most of the song (which lasts about 4mins) without getting boring. There are some instrumental solos and flourishes to keep things interesting and I truly think ‘Wink’ deserves to be a real standout song this summer.
After ‘Wink’s’ sun-bleached, summery vibe, next track ‘My Friend The Walls’ is much more melancholy and the opening vocals sound almost like the robotic reincarnation of Freddy Mercury (sorry Queen fans, that’s just what my ears thought). This doesn’t last and it all gets a bit more warbly and out of key and is almost uncomfortable to listen to. All is forgiven however as the driving chorus kicks in with “when I get my hands on you, oh woah, oh woah”. Just try and stop yourself from singing along. Can’t do it, can you? Whilst moments on this song seem hard to listen to, there is a great pay off and you start to love those more awkward sounding moments. Actually, that’s probably a good way to describe Virtue as a whole.
The next track ‘Pink Ocean’ conjures up comparisons with Prince. Now before any Prince fans out there give me hell, all I’m saying is that’s the feeling I get as a non-Prince fan. I think this is a very good song: chilled, relaxed, dream-like, and I could imagine doing a slow version of the Carlton dance after a few too many adult soft drinks. I mean that in the most positive way possible.
Moving swiftly on we thunder into ‘Black Hole’ which is a punk song but in the vein of The Prodigy when they moved from acid and ecstacy soaked dance to a more rocky / noise rock style. It’s a track that really gets your blood pumping and a great way to round off a pre-drinking session before a night out.
‘Lazy Boy’ opens as probably the most straight up, traditional indie-rock song so far trundling along in a fashion very befitting to its moniker. Does that mean I think this is any less interesting than the other songs on here? No, definitely not. It has various moments where the drums and guitars line up to a staccato beat, the guitar intro sounds like it could lead into an Elvis song, there’s so much to love about this song.
“New holocaust happening, what, are you blind? We're in Germany now, 1939. The oblivious, you've still got blood on your hands if you don't think it's wrong to kill an innocent man” thunders the opening to penultimate track ‘We’re Where We Were’. This is a song that storms out of the gates with a real swagger and attitude and at Track 14 (yes there are a lot of tracks on this album) it’s astonishing we’re still being hit with songs of this quality and diversity. If you liked ‘Pyramid of Bones’ you’re sure to love this one too.
Finally, we get to the last track ‘Pointlessness’ which I’ve already talked about but what I will say is this is a great song to round off the album with. It’s sad, soothing, soaring, sonically interesting and above all, quite brilliant.
So there you have it. Virtue by the Voidz. One of the most varied and in my opinion exciting releases of the year so far. Somehow I made it through all of that without addressing the elephant in the room that this is the side project of Julian Casablancas, better known as the front man of The Strokes (see I told you I’d come back to them) - who’d have thought it?
Virtue is available now on all good streaming platforms so give it a listen and if you like it, support the artists with a purchase or try and find a gig near you.
