Beginning with the sounds of an eerie carnival, the 11 minute single track, “Human Sadness”, off of Julian Casablancas + The Voidz album, Tyranny, screeches through a variety of trance-like melodies from start to finish.
Like a bad dream that seems endless, Human Sadness is a track that will put you asleep and shake you awake over and over.
The track never catches and the focus isn’t clear. Casablancas’ voice is across the board and in a bad way, bouncing from easy tones to noisy yips that beckon you to cover your ears. Much longer than it needs to be, “Human Sadness” makes you yearn for the early days of The Strokes and wonder how Casablancas got so far away from good. Even though the beginning of the song sparks a glimmer of hope, the exposition falls flat, with a inane, grating and repetitive electric guitar melody of the ilk we hoped would’ve died in the 80s. The last two minutes, however, offer up a bit of redemption. While the vocals disappoint, the music itself is nothing short of experimental, which drowns out the horror that is the lyrical shortcoming of Casablancas and makes you nostalgic for a time and space you’ve never yet been to. Don’t get too comfortable- Casablancas is sure to wake you up with a moan soon enough. Let’s hope there’s a stack of tracks more worthy of our time when Tyranny hits the shelves Sept. 23.
