A lot has been made of Greta Van Fleet’s love of ’70s music and their imitations of it – particularly Led Zeppelin, whom their songs most intently recall. A lot has been product of this that any progress the band has made over the six years for the reason that launch of the Black Smoke Rising EP has been overshadowed by the comparisons.
That is in all probability not going to vary a lot with Starcatcher, their third album of cosmic, flares-sporting rock ‘n’ roll straight from the period of 8-track tapes, shag carpets and dragon-adorned Chevy vans. All of this stuff and extra come to thoughts over the 43 minutes it takes the ten tracks to untangle and discover their place within the stratosphere. Reaching for the celebrities, Greta Van Fleet finds earthbound footing as tough as it’s pointless.
The prog tendencies that discovered their method onto 2021’s The Battle at Backyard’s Gate are principally gone now, leaving the band with its leanest work but. It is extra Homes of the Holy than Presence, to proceed a theme – however it’s nonetheless a great distance from their influences. Josh Kiszka is in additional management of his voice, tempering tendencies to push it to 11 proper out of the gate, selecting as a substitute to construct his solution to that time, as a rule, all through Starcatcher.
Like its predecessor, Starcatcher is vaguely an idea album, in that musical themes and topics appear to reappear from music to music. “Hail, the God music! / All trill to the tune religious reprise!” Kiszka sings on the opening of the report on “Destiny of the Trustworthy.” “Hail, the eon! / We knelt on this slab the blessed individuals!” What does all of it imply? Who is aware of, however Kiszka and his bandmates appear dedicated to the thought as “No Quarter” organ and Bonham-sized drums thunder round them. They’re simply as dedicated when Kiszka sings about his wardrobe in “Sacred the Thread”: “The sequins tripping on the sunshine, whoa / I really feel it hugging me so tight, whoa.”
Producer Dave Cobb has helped Nashville acts Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton thrive inside their consolation zones, and barely pushes this Michigan-born, Nashville-based group away from their muses and sound. “The Falling Sky” and “Sacred the Thread” channel Zeppelin’s blue crunch (try the latter’s levee-breaking drums), whereas “Assembly the Grasp” shoots for a 2112-style Rush epic. (So yeah, there’s nonetheless some prog.) It quantities to a nostalgic journey doing its half to maintain rock ‘n’ roll alive in 2023. Greta Van Fleet retains trying to the long run by glancing on the previous.
High 100 Basic Rock Artists
Click on via to learn the way they stack up, as we rely down the High 100 basic rock artists.
