Greta Van Fleet Silence the Critics with Genre-Defying Fourth Album

Greta Van Fleet has spent much of their career dodging comparisons to Led Zeppelin, and their fourth album might finally put those comparisons to rest for good. The record is a sprawling, genre-defying work that draws from progressive rock, Appalachian folk, psychedelia, West African rhythms, and even elements of electronic music, creating a sound that's unmistakably their own.

The album was produced over 18 months in a converted barn in rural Michigan, where the band lived and worked together in near-total isolation. The seclusion seems to have freed them creatively, as the music displays a confidence and willingness to experiment that was only hinted at in their previous work.

The most striking aspect of the album is its dynamic range. Tracks move from hushed acoustic passages to walls of distorted guitar without warning, and the band's willingness to let songs breathe and develop at their own pace gives the album an organic quality that recalls the best of 1970s progressive rock. Josh Kiszka's vocals, always the band's most impressive instrument, are used with more restraint and variety than ever before.

Critics who had written the band off as classic rock revivalists are reassessing. The album has earned the band's most positive reviews, with several publications acknowledging that Greta Van Fleet has evolved from talented imitators into genuinely original artists. Whether longtime detractors will be convinced remains to be seen, but the music makes a compelling case.