Written by Tom Bedding
After releasing a debut record that was slammed and also adored (it was a 3.5/10 from BMTM), where could these guys go? Well, Greta Van Fleet have given small hope that they could be an interesting band, eventually.
An epic beginning with an organ starts ‘Heat Above’, before a grande, classic rock sound takes the fray. The instrumentation is wonderful in all honesty, capturing a lovely magical and rocky vibe that a lot will enjoy! For me though, there seems to be a lot of effort by band to show off that they can play. Then we get to the talked about vocals of Josh Kiszka (I really struggle), who does not have a good mix on his voice during the opening track, which all in all, is probably one of the better cuts on the LP.
Greta Van Fleet have this post-grunge opening few seconds on ‘My Way, Soon’, however we do go back to this classic rock’n’roll soud that it is mildly fun at points. It feels like AC/DC are doing their best early rock’n’roll impression, which includes a rather good hook to it during the verses.
But it does fall into a world of feeling generic… come on…have we heard this before? Yes. Do the vocals have anything fresh about them and sound like he’s trying to grate cheese with his teeth? Yes. Already there is a sense of tiresome with how painful this American band are doing what we love but we never asked for it to be done again.
The vocal mixing on ‘Broken Bells’ is again irritating, attempting to make us feel like we are about to battle against the orcs in Middle Earth. In all truthness, I put Greta Van Fleet in the same camp as 5 Seconds of Summer, simply selling old sounds that kids did not realise were a thing.
Next, the sound of the guitar riff at the start of ‘Built By Nations’ sounds bad arse in truth, with the drumming backing it impressively. Josh Kiszka sounds better on the mic also, with some slight growling to give the song an extra kick! It is so so so needed.
We then plummet into the most generic substance imaginable for any rock band, a slow jam with tones that sound like my tummy is rubbing. What on earth is happening here…seriously….you can imagine these guys in the studio putting on some sort of candles and thinking they are rewriting the bible.
‘Tears of Rain’ has some gentle nature with the musicianship though, making things bearable…until the vocals come along again….it sounds like the cat is stuck in the toilet. It’s a real shame these songs get spoilt by the bands generic love for rock music, you can hear that they are talented but it is truly frustrating in terms of where they take their ideas.
Then you can imagine the sigh I gave when seeing the track name of ‘Stardust Chords’ came along, I just want to go to bed by this point. However I can’t as the big band moment starts ANOTHER song, called ‘Light My Love’. We are transported to what feels like a drunk knight singing to his fair lady, trying to sound romantic but instead naming things like it’s a shit game of eye spy.
As said, the musicianship is impressive throughout and stands out in the guitar work on ‘Caravel’. This is why so many want to pull their hair out when listening to Greta Van Fleet, you can see they having something about them but instead they want to shove 70’s rock crayons up their noses. I do have to Apologise if you have enjoyed this album but for the 10th on ‘The Barbarians’, we hear a ‘woahhhhhhheeeeeyeeeearghhh’ at the start of a song!!! Theres just not enough engaging and fresh ideas at stake on the bands second album.
Greta Van Fleet close the garden gates with ‘The Weight of Dreams’, which begins with an uninteresting guitar part. Now it is eight minutes long and even if one person reads this reviews, you’re welcome…. I listened to the albums closer twice…TWICE! It's sweet with its attempt but does have it enough to justify the length, nope. Its actually impressive its that long and there’s nothing to it.
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