Released: 2024
Genres: Synthpop, Art Rock, Neo-Psychedelia
The Musiquarium’s Like All Before You Review Score: 6.5 out of 10
The Voidz’ last album, Virtue, was one of the strongest albums from Julian Casablancas in recent years and was considered a major improvement over The Strokes’ 2010s output (though those albums are hugely underrated). This was followed by that band’s The New Abnormal in 2020, which saw the Strokes back on top of the world, with what was easily their best album since their seminal 2001 debut, Is This It. With The Voidz’ third album, Like All Before You, Julian Casablancas brings back the autotune vocals of his 2013 Daft Punk collaboration Instant Crush, much to the dismay of his fans.
Two instrumentals, Overture and Walk Off (Outro), bookend the album, but are rather superfluous — the most bizarre thing though, is that Overture was released as a single, but I suppose that the Voidz aren’t supposed to be your typical band. Square Wave starts off sounding like The Cure, then gives way to unintelligible autotune vocals, which will become a staple throughout the rest of the album. I’m not against autotune vocals, but Casablancas does sound quite bad here.
Prophecy of the Dragon plays like both an homage and satire of hair metal, with a riff similar to Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train, but different enough to be it’s own beast. 7 Horses dances around on a reggae beat. Spectral Analysis is a drumless piece that’s pleasant enough, but is ultimately meandering by the end. Flexorcist incorporates a groove that recalls New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle.
Perseverance–1C2S is a moodier piece and features a killer guitar solo, as well as references to the band’s first two albums (“Tyranny, virtue, perseverance”). All the Same uses plenty of autotune and while it’s not the best track on the album, it’s playful and fun. When Will the Time of These Bastards End makes the stylistic choice of pitch-shifting Casablancas’ voice to sound much deeper, sounding like a discount Dracula.
Many fans seemed to have made up their minds about the album before it even released, due to the use of A.I. artwork on the cover, and this, mixed with Julian Casablancas insistence on using autotune left many listeners feeling betrayed and let down. What began as a very jarring listening experience, has evolved into somewhat of a guilty pleasure. It’s not great at all and has many flaws, but Like All Before You is an interesting album all the same. That shoddy A.I. artwork sucks though (the composition of the eyebrow makes no sense).
For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view The Voidz on Discogs.
Back to the 2024 Album Guide or the The Voidz Reviews page.
Written by Brett Nippard
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