Greta Van Fleet Album Finally Released!

[blueschica]

I'll give this a listen for certain, because I did enjoy a few of the singles and thought they showed good improvement over their earlier material. That said, I'm not enthralled by the band in general. They always come off to me like they're trying to sound like LZ and more importantly not trying to sound like themselves. If they manage to write great songs and great albums I'm all ears, good songs and albums overrule everything (see LZ's own plagiarism), but their earlier stuff just wasn't great. Hopefully this is better.

 

Glad y'all enjoy it though. More rock to enjoy is never a bad thing.

 

Considering you listen to heavily watered down pop punk and very VERY commercialised "emo" that owes nothing to that genres roots, I find it surprising you sound so jaded against a back to the roots rock n roll album like this. It sounds fresh and vintage, and we are living in a day and age in urgent need for rock to have another gamechanging moment like Nirvana. This band is showing great promise of bringing crowds back. It shouldn't matter if they sound old, they have a sound that anyone who loves guitar music can be drawn too. No overdubs, Facebook meme-worthy lyrics, no cliche breakdowns or top 40-esque pop production. This is a great rock album. A PURE rock album. Like YYNot this year, they could be on the verge of true greatness.

 

I listen to many things. Production matters a lot to me. Guitars matter a lot to me. Proficiency matters a lot to me. Great songs and albums matter more. If you ain’t got the songs, I lose much of my interest, and prior to a few of the singles I’ve heard from this album, GVF had very little in their songs that interested me. As far as them sounding like zep, it isn’t that they sound like zep. It’s that they sound like they want to sound like zep, down to the last vocal warble. To me, that makes them sound robotic, calculated, but without good songs. If you tossed me a tape of randomly selected and jumbled together clips of actual LZ songs, it would have the same effect on me.

 

I understand who they’re emulating; I don’t understand what they bring to the table.

 

EDIT: also I’ve definitely heard some embarrassing lyrics from them.

 

To be fair, Zeppelin had some bad lyrics as well. The difference is Plant was cool enough to pull it off and not have anybody care.

 

sex and hobbits, what else is there to sing about?

 

Sex with hobbits.

:lol:

[theredtamasrule]

I like some songs...some pretty good riffs here and there. I have to say that it is refreshing to hear guitar playing that isn’t the “look at how much I’ve practiced my scales” typical metal shredding that all sounds the same to me.

 

The singer emulating Plant is about as far as I go win the Zep comparisons. From what I’ve heard the drummer and the bass player are decent but in no way should be compared to JPJ & Bonzo.

 

They’re so young and have yet to even find “their” sound if they ever do.

[canadianice]

Watched them on Austin City limits for about 15 minutes, could not stand anymore of that awful vocal crap.

[thizzellewashington]

GVF doesn't do much for me, but they're so young and clearly talented that I'm more than happy to give them a few years to grow into themselves. I can think of another band whose first album was a pretty unremarkable Zeppelin ripoff and whose sound matured and developed into something unique as they got older...

[Fridge]

Watched them on Austin City limits for about 15 minutes, could not stand anymore of that awful vocal crap.

 

:rfl: :rfl: :rfl: :rfl: :rfl: :rfl: :rfl: :rfl: :rfl: :rfl:

[bathory]

wolfmother was a much better "throwback" group

[Segue Myles]

wolfmother was a much better "throwback" group

 

And The Sword.

 

But I do like this band, although I wouldn't be surprised if the band get "inventive" on the next album and start adding EDM and pop elements to the outcry of "oh my god these guys are so unique and creative!".

 

But I still hope they get better.

[bathory]

forgot the sword. those first two records were heavy hitters

[Segue Myles]

forgot the sword. those first two records were heavy hitters

 

Whenever I spin them I can easily forget they aren't seventies classics.

 

I do love that debut...everything about it.

[bluefox4000]

i've already stopped with this record. as i probably knew i would. after the cool retro thing wears off. there's really not much there to keep you at all interested.

 

Nice initial few spins though.

 

Mick

[Segue Myles]

i've already stopped with this record. as i probably knew i would. after the cool retro thing wears off. there's really not much there to keep you at all interested.

 

Nice initial few spins though.

 

Mick

 

Agreed. But at the same time for a debut it shows too much promise to be a complete write off!

 

I know I will stick around for that second album out of sheer curiosity!

[Fridge]

i've already stopped with this record. as i probably knew i would. after the cool retro thing wears off. there's really not much there to keep you at all interested.

 

Nice initial few spins though.

 

Mick

 

Agreed. But at the same time for a debut it shows too much promise to be a complete write off!

 

I know I will stick around for that second album out of sheer curiosity!

 

I agree...if you sift through the obviously derivative stuff, there are some real gems in their songs......my hope is that they will not try and add synth backing etc like a lot of crappy new bands do, and expand on the non-zep elements of their music (which there are more of than you would think)

 

I also think the singer needs to watch his voice.....he can hit these incredible notes like Plant did, but unlike Plant there is a certain thin and harsh quality at the limits of his upper register, whereas Plant always sounded more rounded and smooth in that territory...perhaps some vocal coaching might help him,and there is no shame in that at all, as it has preserved the voice of some amazing singers.

 

All in all, I think they've made a really solid start, but now the jury is out on whether they are going to be the next big thing (which I hope they are) or just another (albeit a very good one) Zep copycat.

[ReRushed]

Get a new singer.

[Segue Myles]

After listening really attentively to early Rush...all of a sudden this band lost my interest...

 

Want a really cool retro metal debut?

 

Go back more than a decade and lick yourself up The Sword's "The Age Of Winters" or Wolfmother's self-titled.

 

I am more than pleased to see Greta pursue this style and make a name for themselves, and I do like them. But it does confuse me that they are taking the world by storm ahead of many retro-flavoured bands that do it so much better.

 

Still, I give the debut a generous 6 or 7.

 

I take bacl everything I said about the Rush debut. Greta aren't even close...they do not have a Lifeson in their ranks.

[RUSHHEAD666]

wolfmother was a much better "throwback" group

 

And The Sword.

 

But I do like this band, although I wouldn't be surprised if the band get "inventive" on the next album and start adding EDM and pop elements to the outcry of "oh my god these guys are so unique and creative!".

 

But I still hope they get better.

 

I love The Sword and the first few Wolfmother records!!

[Chronos]

I enjoyed GVF's first two EPs, but then something about the vocal quality drastically changed. It renders the "Anthem" album unlistenable!

[goose]

https://pitchfork.co...-peaceful-army/

 

The debut from the young Michigan rock band is stiff, hackneyed, overly precious retro-fetishism.

 

Greta Van Fleet sound like they did weed exactly once, called the cops, and tried to record a Led Zeppelin album before they arrested themselves. The poor kids from Frankenmuth, Michigan don’t even realize they’re more of an algorithmic fever dream than an actual rock band. While they’re selling out shows all over the world, somewhere in a boardroom, a half-dozen people are figuring out just how, exactly, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are supposed to fit into the SUV with the rest of the Greta Van Fleet boys on “Carpool Karaoke.”...

 

...The singer, the wretched and caterwauling third brother, Josh, is in dangly feather earrings and vinyl pants, like he was dressed by a problematic Santa Fe palm-reader with a gift certificate to Chico’s. It’s a costume—Greta Van Fleet is all costume. And if things that look like another thing is your thing, get ready to throw your lighters up for a band whose guiding principle seems to be reading the worst Grand Funk Railroad songs as if they were a religious text.

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by goose

[goose]

The positive reviews keep pouring in... ;)

 

https://www.theguard...ew-forum-london

 

[beyond Zeppelin,] there’s another group they resemble, too, one that never existed: Wyld Stallyns: the three Kiszka brothers and drummer Danny Wagner drip Bill & Ted. Their hilariously inane interviews beg to be concluded with an exclamation of “Awesome!” Their wide-eyed but hollow lyrics pretty much encapsulate the creed: “Be excellent to each other.” “Turn back the clock within your glass of sand,” Josh Kiszka sings on the opening Brave New World, “to a time of love within this blackened land.” Like, totally, dude!

 

[but...]

 

Despite their ridiculousness, Greta Van Fleet aren’t boring: they’re often terrific fun. :ebert:

Edited November 14, 2018 by goose

[toymaker]

https://pitchfork.co...-peaceful-army/

 

The debut from the young Michigan rock band is stiff, hackneyed, overly precious retro-fetishism.

 

Greta Van Fleet sound like they did weed exactly once, called the cops, and tried to record a Led Zeppelin album before they arrested themselves. The poor kids from Frankenmuth, Michigan don’t even realize they’re more of an algorithmic fever dream than an actual rock band. While they’re selling out shows all over the world, somewhere in a boardroom, a half-dozen people are figuring out just how, exactly, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are supposed to fit into the SUV with the rest of the Greta Van Fleet boys on “Carpool Karaoke.”...

 

...The singer, the wretched and caterwauling third brother, Josh, is in dangly feather earrings and vinyl pants, like he was dressed by a problematic Santa Fe palm-reader with a gift certificate to Chico’s. It’s a costume—Greta Van Fleet is all costume. And if things that look like another thing is your thing, get ready to throw your lighters up for a band whose guiding principle seems to be reading the worst Grand Funk Railroad songs as if they were a religious text.

 

 

Critics are kind of assholes, but that was amusing.

[toymaker]

I want to ask about the Edge of Darkness line. "All my brothers who stand up / for the peace of land". Do you know what meaning or intent Josh [who wrote the lyrics] put into the line?

 

I guess it's subject to interpretation. But I think the initial idea with that was that, as brothers we stand for the peace of land. And that was for the good of the Earth, and for man. And all those lessons of peace, and love, and unity, that was something that he had said. And it was sort of advocating that peace, love, and unity. As brothers we stand, for the peace of the land. I think that's what he was going for there.

[Rutlefan]

I think some people are really desperate for the next big rock band.

 

Growing up in the '70s/early '80s it seemed like there's always some band touted as "the next Beatles" or "next Zeppelin". Some made some sense, like when (for a little while) people were claiming that Squeeze's songwriting duo of Difford/Tilbrook were "the next Lennon/McCartney", but usually "the next Zeppelin" only superficially resembled Zeppelin and normally contained very little of their greatness; rather, they seemed to mostly parody Zeppelin, who early on at least was somewhat of a parody of rock excess, making the Zeppelin copies a parody of a parody, the Austin Powers of rock. I remember one particularly making me scratch my head. When Fastway's debut came out people around me were like "the next Zepplin, the next Zeppelin!" I remember thinking that it sounds like great rock and/or roll (a nod to Principal Skinner... "What a minute, this sounds like Rock and/or Roll!") but it's not Zeppelin. And then there was White Snake, etc., and the tedious comparisons went on as those desperate for another Zeppelin kept searching.

 

Back to Fastway, I've never been a metal guy but I like good rock. I can't see how GVF remotely compares even to these guys (personally I can't get past the GVF voice so I've no idea of the songwriting or musicianship but I listened enough to sense there's nothing original there, yet). I get that the GTV guys are young though; I hope they grown into their potential. Good luck to them.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5_oPyavUaw

Edited November 16, 2018 by Rutlefan