I’ve been into this Greta Van Fleet album lately, The Battle at Garden’s Gate. I last talked about it here. I’ve been listening to the album since then, and I have uncovered a hack that I would like to share with the internet at large.
See, the thing is, Battle is a good album, but it’s not a great album. It is held back from greatness, in my opinion, by the presence of four songs.
“Tears of Rain”. I like what it’s trying to do, but it just misses the mark for me.
“Light My Love”. I don’t like what it’s trying to do. It ends up just being pukey.
“Caravel”. This song is just stupid. It annoys me every time I hear it.
“The Weight of Dreams”. This is the grand finale to the album. Unfortunately it lacks the spark of the better songs, and is just way too bombastic and overblown.
Now, keep in mind, I’m just some bloke on the internet. I’m not here to crap on your favorite Greta Van Fleet song. They’re all decent songs. I’m just speaking my truth.
So what do we have left? Eight songs, 42 minutes of music. The perfect size to fit on a single LP. Here’s the track listing.
“Heat Above”
“My Way Soon”
“Broken Bells”
“Built By Nations”
“Age of Machine”
“Stardust Chords”
“The Barbarians”
“Trip the Light Fantastic”
You might have to mess with the order to get them to fit on the sides, but I’m not sure. In any case, I’m not pressing any vinyl, so this is all on iTunes.
What you have in these eight tracks is no less than one of the greatest hard rock albums of all time. It fires on twelve cylinders from start to finish. Bomb-ass track after bomb-ass track. I wish this had been Greta Van Fleet’s second studio album. As it is, I’m happy with The Battle at Garden’s Gate. But this abbreviated version will be the one I listen to most often.
I made a YouTube playlist if you wanna give it a try.
Ethan Abides 