Review Rating: 4/5 Stars
Experimenting with a new unexplored sound, Julian Casablancas and his side-project band, The Voidz, released an album that is different from any of Casablancas previous work.
Casablancas is best known for being the lead singer of New York City “post-punk” band, The Strokes, who formed in 1998.
In 2009 [after The Strokes took a brief hiatus from recording/touring], he released a solo album titled “Phrazes for the Young” inspired by Oscar Wilde’s “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”. The album featured a “new-wave” sound and separated itself very differently from his work with The Strokes. The album received fairly adequate ratings from magazines such as NME, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian.
In 2013, Casablancas started a side project entitled “Julian Casablancas + The Voidz” that brought a completely different sound from that of The Strokes and Casablanca’s previous solo effort.
The Voidz consist of Jeramy “Beardo” Gritter on guitar, second guitarist Amir Yaghmai, Jacob Bercovici on bass, Alex Carapetis on drums, and Jeff Kite on keyboards.
The debut album of The Voidz, “Tyranny”, was released on Sept. 23 and highly attracted the attention of fans of The Strokes and fans of hard-hitting music. It was released through Casablanca’s independent record label, Cult Records, which he founded in 2009.
The album contains heavy lyrical content about protesting the government and the people who are rising up against it.
“Human Sadness” and “Where No Eagles Fly” were the singles released that gave listeners a taste of the new experimental sound by Casablancas and The Voidz. The two tracks are completely different in regards to how it makes one feel.
“Human Sadness” brings in themes of depression and suicide, while “Where No Eagles Fly” lyrically bashes the government.
Lyrics such as “the wolf will cry sheep as they take him away”, show that once someone with great power is overthrown, they ask for the help of the common people.
Even though it might be hard to hear what Casablancas sings throughout some parts of the album due to the distorted vocals and the reverb of Beardo’s guitar playing, a sense of rage, sadness, and revolution is felt.
Whether it’s a phase or a new approach of music for Casablancas, it seems that there can still be room for improvement.
You can stream “Tyranny” for free on Spotify or purchase either a CD or vinyl copy
Music video for “Where No Eagles Fly” courtesy of Cult Records via YouTube
