Starcatcher

Led Zeppelin but it was recorded in a Dishwasher. That's an overused comparison, but in all seriousness, these guys have 5 million monthly listeners but I've never heard about them in my life. Considering most 'mainstream' music on this website gets bombed for the most part, I'm kind of surprised this album doesn't have more (negative) reviews already.

Greta Van Fleet takes a very heavy homage to the classic rock of the 1970s. I don't see an issue with that; sure, it's 100% on the nose and extremely obvious what their influences are, but that doesn't automatically make something bad. I went into this with quite low expectations, although I found myself enjoying the first song. Yeah, the mixing of the vocals sounds like I'm listening to it in a laundromat sitting next to a washing machine, but it's a pretty fun song to listen to, even if formulaic.

Well, that didn't last long, because every song after felt like it sounded the same. It didn't help the reverb was cranked up on this to the point where it all sounded muddled and mashed together. I don't have an issue with them taking a lot of influence from 70's rock, but when every song sounds the same and is mixed badly, it dampens the experience. I couldn't even really enjoy this album as an easy listen, because I couldn't decipher half the lyrics and ended up reading them through each song because otherwise, I was going to have no idea what any of them were saying. Within those 10 tracks, the only stand-out song to me was "Meeting The Master". It finally changes the formula a bit, the mixing on this one is better, and I think the user rating pretty much reflects the same thoughts I had about it. But for a 42-minute record, it felt more like an hour. I feel their biggest weakness is that they tied themselves to this sound so much, that they've gotten stuck in it.

There is talent here, but I feel it's being very limited by sticking to one sound. I feel this band has a rich enough identity at this point in their career where they should be able to explore different sounds and push the creative envelope. To be honest, a lot of this just sounds uninspired, and while okay on its own, when it's all put together at the end of the day, it's very much just a resounding 'meh'.

This is far from horrifically bad. Honestly, this is a very inoffensive record, but with how static it is, I can't really recommend it unless you really enjoy 70s rock pretty much exclusively. I think some people can find enjoyment in it, but this doesn't grapple me or pull me in at all. I just feel kind've blegh afterwards with this album. Something is missing; maybe I could've found it if everything wasn't so muddled in its own reverb.