Review: Julian Casablancas & The Voidz - Tyranny
By Tony Cardwell, Contributor
[Cult, 2014]
Score: 5/10
Key Tracks: “Nintendo Blood,” “Johan Von Brox”
Julian Casablancas, most notable for fronting The Strokes, lives and dies by creating light and electronic alternative rock. His work with The Strokes doesn’t necessarily follow this rule, but his first solo record Phrazes of the Young consisted of electronic new wave. His appearance on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories only solidified his love of danceable synthetic tunes.
Throw his solo work and his work with The Strokes out the window; Tyranny is unlike anything you’ve heard from Julian Casablancas.
Tyranny is a mixed bag of audio onslaught from Casablancas’ backing band, The Voidz, and electronically assisted falsetto brought to you by Casablancas himself. Simply put, the record is all over the place. The two aforementioned themes are present throughout the collection, but the level of intensity in the instrumentation differs greatly.
The entire record fluctuates in this way, throwing off its pacing. I found myself lost in a song and then immediately shook up by a massive electronic attack; the use of slow to abrupt is incredibly irritating.
This idea of being awoken at every chorus is all over Tyranny, though it doesn’t harm every single track. “Human Sadness” is a prime example of a song exhibiting an ebb and flow of force. The track also brings to light another flaw on this album--the vocal delivery.
At one point in “Human Sadness," Casablancas spews out pure gibberish, and it doesn’t happen on just this song. No, it happens in about four of them, most notably “Father Electricity.” This fountain of unintelligible words diminishes the experience and is almost laughable. Another joke occurs in “Business Dog.” The group throws in an FCC-type sensor bleep; it comes out of nowhere and makes the rest of the song impossible to take seriously.
I cannot over-stress the crazy use of assaulting electronic rhythms and guitar on this album. The songs are incredibly heavy and annoying with all the screeching and whatnot going on in the background. With that being said, I found solace in two songs in particular: “Nintendo Blood” and “Johan Von Bronx.”
Both songs harken back to Casablancas’ time with The Strokes and showcase some serious '80s inflections; “Nintendo Blood” explicitly alludes to the '80s in its title. Both songs downplay the hellishly concentrated instruments and listening to them is actually enjoyable.
Tyranny is a very strange album, especially for Julian Casablancas; maybe he had some issues with dial-up in the past and felt like he should express those problems. The record is a perfect soundtrack for smashing old Macintosh 2s and fax machines. But Tyranny isn’t trash; in fact, it can be enjoyable on occasion. Ultimately its highs and lows even out to create a middle of the road album. If you enjoy incredibly heavy electronic music, give it a listen. If you’re looking for The Strokes, just keep listening to Is This It on repeat.
