GRETA VAN FLEET – Starcatcher (2023) *HQ*
Grammy-winning retro rockers GRETA VAN FLEET consisting of three brothers – vocalist Josh Kiszka, guitarist Jake Kiszka and bassist/keyboardist Sam Kiszka – as well as drummer Danny Wagner are about to release their much anticipated 3rd studio album ”Starcatcher.”
Starcatcher’s production-helmed by Grammy winner Dave Cobb is more stripped-down than the previous album, allowing the instrumentation breathe – and shine. Take the album’s haunting, elegiac first single, ‘Meeting the Master,’ which at first pairs rich, wistful acoustic guitars with Josh’s yearning vocals, before blooming into a classic Greta Van Fleet rock ‘n’ roll anthem with a majestic guitar solo and pummeling drums.
”Starcatcher” is the sound of four musicians amplifying one another’s strengths, across snarling, barnstorming classic rock (‘The Falling Sky’), meditative, gnarled hard rock (‘Sacred the Thread’), acoustic-driven folk-rock (‘Farewell for Now’), and stinging psychedelic rock (‘The Indigo Streak’). Occasional organ or keyboard flourishes pop out of the mix, adding texture and melodrama.
‘Starcatcher’ is full of delightful contrasts, none of them jarring. The music remains emotive and mountainous in scale, but there’s no fat here, no pomp-filled production. Josh’s crystalline wail seems to almost reverberate, as if sung to you from trees and hills.
Guitar playing twin brother Jake, definitely the album’s star performer, dazzles with unexpected flurries of note-making and tone. And some of their songs, some of their stranger ideas, are their best to date.
While opener Fate Of The Faithful and apt closer Farewell For Now have graceful retro rock presence, it’s in the masterful The Archer and deliciously over the top first video Meeting The Master that this album’s real virtue lies.
The former is a candidate for the quartet’s finest creation, the kind of weirdly timeless, skin-tingling anthem that invites each listener to invoke their own interpretation, while the latter is a glorious paean to the band’s justly beloved great outdoors.
Sacred The Thread offers more divine intervention, while on the notably more upfront The Falling Sky, they throw in a harmonica solo that somehow elevates rather than distracts. In contrast, the driving rock of Runway Blues seems a missed opportunity; a full pelt rocker that mysteriously melts away after a minute.
No matter; ‘Starcatcher’ is the work of a band not phased by success, but continuing to develop its art. With a nod to the classic rock that inspired them, Greta Van Fleet continue to contort those great influences in challenging and evocative new directions.
Highly Recommended
1 Fate of the Faithful
2 Waited All Your Life
3 The Falling Sky
4 Sacred the Thread
5 Runway Blues
6 The Indigo Streak
7 Frozen Light
8 The Archer
9 Meeting the Master
10 Farewell for Now
vocals – Josh Kiszka
guitar – Jake Kiszka
bass / keyboards – Sam Kiszka
drums – Danny Wagner
Pre order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Starcatcher-Greta-Van-Fleet/dp/B0C1JZT82J
