CLOUD NOTHINGS
"Last Building Burning"
BOTTOM LINE: The indie rockers' latest shows rage and purpose.
The struggle for great songwriters like the Cloud Nothings' Dylan Baldi is finding the right outlet for their ideas.
Sometimes, the Cloud Nothings specialize in ferocious, frantic rock. Sometimes, they go for well-crafted indie-pop. On the Cleveland band's new album, "Last Building Burning" (Carpark), they strike a balance, but it leans heavy on ambition and rage.
There's no doubt of the direction thanks to the punishing opener, "On an Edge," though the more tuneful, yet still hard-hitting "Leave Him Now" and "In Shame" will keep you singing along as well as rocking out. On the single "The Echo of the World," the band shows how it has updated the classic grunge sound, with Baldi's plaintive voice cutting through the layers of guitars and cascading drum rhythms.
The epic, 11-minute, hard-rocking suite "Dissolution" shows how grand Baldi's ambitions can get, opening with a high-impact rant about "darkening your life" that flows into a wall of guitar feedback and then bashing drum solos before coming out the other side as focused as it started.
"Last Building Burning" also proves how much Cloud Nothings has grown since its breakout "Attack on Memory" without losing any of the fire.
GRETA VAN FLEET
"Anthem of the Peaceful Army"
BOTTOM LINE: Climbing the stairway to heaven, but not quite there.
Nearly everything about Greta Van Fleet seems spectacular.
Singer Josh Kiszka, 22, has the kind of voice rockers dream of _ mixing the swaggering upper register of Robert Plant with the dramatic command of a Broadway soloist. His twin brother, Jake Kiszka, is a guitar marvel, churning through album-rock riffs like Jimmy Page and bluesy solos like Eric Clapton. Their brother, 19-year-old bassist Sam Kiszka, and family friend drummer Danny Wagner, also 19, team up for a stunning rhythm section, especially when they get some room to roam like in the single "When the Curtain Falls." It's no wonder why rock purists and millennial fans alike are falling all over the Michigan rockers and their powerful debut, "Anthem of the Peaceful Army" (Lava/Republic) will generate even more buzz.
"Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer)" is dizzying in its ability to conjure up so many hard rock milestones from the past _ starting with Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." The mythologic imagery in "Mountain of the Sun" and Josh Kiszka's howl will have many searching for their copies of "Houses of the Holy."
However, it is on "Anthem," the most current-sounding of the album's 10 tracks, where Greta Van Fleet makes its biggest move, showing their spiritual, positive point of view and their ability to process more contemporary surroundings. "Your opinion only knows the one thing that you seem to want to have most and you chose," Josh Kiszka sings. "To save yourself in your own time, you'll have to stay and open up your own mind."
The strength of that song points out the one main thing missing in "Anthem of the Peaceful Army." As stylish and often-stunning as Greta Van Fleet's delivery is, their message isn't always on the same level, though they certainly seem to be well on their way to putting it all together.
