Greta van Fleet - Anthem of the Peaceful Army

Does Greta Van Fleet sound like Led Zeppelin? Do raccoons rummage through trash cans? Citadel sounded like Yes. Kansas made a Foreigner album. I legitimately couldn't tell if that new song Social Debris was Alice Cooper or Dave Mustaine until i looked it up earlier this afternoon. Josh has a super high voice, but it only resembles Robert Plant's in a superficial sense. I wouldn't confuse the two. In fact, i hear a whole lot more Budgie and The Who in their first album than anything else. 

It's unapologetically 70s hard rock, and they didn't necessarily set out to be a rock band. I talked about this back with Chavelle, they're Hanson. The actual music is just what happened when these 3 brothers decided to be a band. They say it all starts out as folk songs from the futon, but I'm certainly not gonna be all "never make tired old blues rock again" like Julian Casablancas. I love this stuff. I just hope it's as wackadoodle as the sci-fi cover leads me to believe. Bring on that ironically fantastical, tree-hugging, hippy adventure through the misty mountained cosmic wilderness my inner Luddite craves. 

Wait just a minute! You're outspokenly anti-corporate, Bottle. You're probably secretly happy those hackers created a hysterical episode of gasoline hoarding. You want to destroy the world! 

Listen to yourself. When have i ever advocated doing terrible things to other people? Never, that's when. Both sides are equally wrong, and i refuse to participate. I'll give you the same opinion i've always given, if you have to freak out about it, then you weren't doing a good job of living in reality. Sometimes terrible things happen, and you should try to be prepared for when they do. I don't mean keeping 9 years worth of rations and ammunition in an underground bunker, i mean really thinking about what you would do if some completely logical catastrophe happened. Really understand what kinds of things you can or can't control. Differentiate between necessities and luxuries. I appreciate the luxuries, but i'm perfectly capable of chopping fire wood, walking long distance, and hunting for food. This isn't the zombie apocalypse, if all the garbage financial stupidity stopped tomorrow morning, we'd go back to worrying about things that are actually important. Now, stop trying to get me off topic, we're listening to Anthem of the Peaceful Army. 

G'v'F made two EPs and generated a lot of buzz touring before this 75% newly composed debut. They walked into the studio with at least 4 times the music Van Halen had for their first album, but had the luxury of using their two weeks of studio time to write new songs on the fly. The result was a concept album about how questionable the value of modern humans is to the universe at large. Crypto-currency backed credit cards are a thing now. Humans are pretty terrible. I know, i am one. Time to press the button that uses electricity generated from liquified dinosaurs to rotate this toxic plastic disc and pleasurably vibrate my eardrums. 

Yeah, this is ridiculous. It's too wacky to be anything but completely sincere. I'm just as delighted by this album as i was the speech the other currently famous Greta gave. Maybe i will pony up the $35 for their follow up double album when i go back to buy The Score by The Fugees. 

Obetrol? The mixed-amphetamine based obesity cure-all from the 50s? Jessie's SAT study buddy? I think i speak for all the discerning drugs in music listeners with my tip of the hat to you, Mr. Greta. 

Aside: Lover, Leaver is way too hot, and i really don't like how heavy i had to set the weight to get it to stop jumping out of the groove. Awesome bass throughout the whole album, but yeah, it bounces like crazy and Side A isn't gonna age well.

But back to the action. Fantastic album. Stellar from start to finish. Even the acoustic tracks rock. Weirdly pronounced words, gargling as a legitimate vocal technique, lyrical epiphanies like "the world is only what the world is made of." Check it out, you won't be sorry at all.