What Decade Is It? Greta Van Fleet’s Palace for the People
Austin Yagoda
Senior Editor
October 13, 2026
As fantastical as they are nostalgic, Greta Van Fleet taps into their deep imaginations on their fifth album, Palace for the People. Nearing the line of rock opera, the Michigan-based group fills nearly an hour with action and intensity, even more so than on their previous releases. Having glossed over the roughly fifty-year gap since the seventies, GVF carries on the theatrical nature of the era and its greats, refusing to conform to modern styles of presentation and sound.
Fittingly, “Into the Beginning” is a vast and sweeping suite of instrumentals and vocalizations that offers an IMAX-level of suspense leading into the album. Capitalizing on this is “Tear It Down,” a moody and rousing track that immediately recalls classic rock influences. The range of instruments used could easily be found in nearly any hit song from the seventies, making them feel almost out of place in this day and age.
“Heart and the Beat” really kicks up some dirt, however, opening with Jake Kiszka’s guitar tearing its amp a new one. Also the first real showcase of singer Josh Kiszka’s fine-tuned voice, the song taps into his deep range and demonstrates what he is capable of, all over lyrics rooted in fiction and passionate nights.
“Boughten Bliss” takes a more wistful approach, setting aside the electric guitar for the acoustic and slowing things down as Kiszka howls, spurring on the listener to “just believe, you will see…what you always were meant to be.” Purely vintage in nature and finally featuring the double-guitar setup, “Field of Stars” continues with a drifter’s remorse and longing. The composition and structure are top-notch, and the song could fit right in on any classic rock radio station.
Just a few octaves, tunings (and a prayer) away from Sugar Ray, “Play Your Games” offers a sunnier listen, embracing pure optimism in lines like “Let’s turn the lights down low, the night is still young… We’re in it together now, it’s time for a show.”
The album darkens again with “Dreams You Hold,” a slower, grittier track driven by a thriving, shifting bassline. Reaching back to the epic atmosphere established in the introductory song, Josh Kiszka and Jake Kiszka trade vocals and guitar through the track’s final minute, paving the way for “Lost in the Golden,” a winding progression of notes and shifting melodies. The song’s inventiveness is particularly apparent, offering a refreshing change in the pace and flow of the tracklist.
“Touch Again” stands out like a tree among shrubs on this album, delivering a gritty and dramatic performance with minimal embellishment. It simply works, combining an unrelenting bassline with a scratchy guitar melody and steadfast lyricism, even incorporating a brass section in its conclusion.
“Saw You Stand” finally gets specific about an unnamed lover, delivering the album’s most romantic and touching song by far. Certain lyrics carry this sentiment, such as “Anyone who ever loved could look at me and know that I loved you” and “Your light made the darkness glow…Loving you made me whole.” Punctuated by a heated guitar solo and some of the highest notes on the album, the Kiszka brothers work overtime to create a deeply endearing echo.
Somewhat folky and entirely anthemic, “Heya” is another rallying cry for a lover, chanting, “But I’m searching for a tender heart like yours.” The heavier percussion emphasizes this rallying quality, separating the track from the more traditional rhythms found throughout the rest of the album. “Call My Own” follows with pensive acoustic strums, setting the stage for the grand finale: “Born into This,” a free-thinking, heavily charged song spanning six minutes and twenty seconds. “The purpose of being is living free…Born to lose or born to win…Born to live or born to die.” The rock opera approach fully opens up in the final track, which builds slowly before reaching the high-action outro.
Despite their travels and isolation while recording Palace for the People, it cannot be said that Greta Van Fleet has reached new heights. The instrumentation is strong, and the talent is evident throughout, but the songwriting holds the album back. The lyrics are generally vague and repetitive, relying on themes of action and cinematic grandeur without much substance to support them. This is a symptom of the band’s commitment to its classic rock revival sound. That influence extends beyond the music itself into the band’s branding and styling, with the typography and even the posing on the album cover recalling a bygone age of rock.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but the band’s theatrical presentation makes it difficult to fully embrace its nostalgic appeal. Modern musicians are often scrutinized as closely for their public personas as for their music, making it harder to sustain the larger-than-life mystique of classic rock. While it is rejuvenating to hear this style of rock written and played again, its effectiveness is overstated here. Palace for the People captures the sound and spectacle of another decade, but its songwriting rarely justifies the revival.
Edited by: Jade Read
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