Greta Van Fleet : Palace for the People

I will admit that I’ve never listened to a full Greta Van Fleet record. In fact, I’ve purposely avoided doing so because there are soooo many more great bands and albums to listen to that are worth one’s time. Albums by bands the Greta fellas seem to obviously admire and were inspired by. If I want something that sounds like Jon Anderson and Yes, well I’ll listen to Fragile or Close To The Edge. If I want to hear something close to Jimmy Page noodling with Tolkien-esque lyrics sung in a high register? Let’s throw on some Houses of the Holy or Physical Graffiti. I don’t want a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy facsimile when the real thing is sitting in my record collection.

It’s obvious these three Kiszka brothers -as well as drummer Danny Wagner- are talented. Coming out of the tourist-y northern Michigan town of Frankenmuth(known for their Christmas-time novelty shops), what else is there to do but ski, sell Christmas decorations, or get stoned and learn guitar. Not sure if the Greta boys partook, but they definitely learned some chords and listened to lots of rock and roll.

I decided to give their new album Palace for the People a listen. You know what? It’s exactly what I thought it’d be. I guess this is their matured sound. It still sounds like four young-ish dudes trying to find who they are by mimicking all their heroes. If you dug what came before, then I imagine you’ll like this as well.

This record seems to be riding Zeppelin-esque coattails, much like what I’ve heard in the past. “Dreams You Hold” has a galloping rhythm that sounds a lot like “The Song Remains The Same”, while “Tear It Down” has a NWOBHM feel, but with less chug and more ugh. “Heart and the Beat” has an interesting strut to it, but then it just ends up sounds like Led Clones Kingdom Come.

Speaking of Led Zeppelin, just because a guy screams like a banshee doesn’t make him sound like the great Robert Plant. They said that about Chris Cornell and that never made sense to me. Joshua Kiszka does have that banshee howl, but in more of an Adam Lambert-meets-Jack Russell sort of way.

You get it all here; the acoustic ballads(“Boughten Bliss”), stadium anthems(“Lost in the Golden”), and even a piano ballad(“Saw You Stand”), plus plenty of riffing and strutting. Is it all worth an hour of your time? I’ll leave that up to you. For me? Palace for the People is more or less very good cosplay. They’re young, they still have time to find their own voice. Until then, I’ll stick to my record collection.