New Robert Plant

[syogusr]

HMV.com has the entire 71/2 min. version of Darkness,Darkness; and I find it to be an awesome interpredation of this classic. Amazon has a L. Audio download of Morning Dew, and that too is excellent. I do believe we are in for an fantastic record from Mr. Plant, who by the way, has a stellar band backing him up. Can't wait to see them opening up for The Who!

[mjb]

I've been living with the 4-track sampler CD for a couple of weeks...

I'm a big fan of Plant's solo work, but one fair comment would be that a lot of it is very much "of its time". That is, NOW AND ZEN sounds very much like a smoother late '80s record, MANIC NIRVANA is very punchy and electronic-sounding '90s record, the obvious early/mid-'80s sonics of SHAKEN AND STIRRED and THE PRINCIPLE OF MOMENTS, etc. Not that Plant was a trend follower, but his records were reflective of the sounds of their time.

FATE OF NATIONS was a deviation from this pattern, in that it tended to mix eras a little more. After the various projects with Jimmy Page, the new material seems to build on Plant's last solo album. The word I've been using is "timeless" -- given the vintage of many of the songs, this could have been a very retro-sounding effort, but songs like "Darkness, Darkness" and "One More Cup of Coffee" seem like they would fit in comfortably with any period of the last few decades.

I'm very excited about DREAMLAND, and looking forward to seeing Plant on tour in September. Collectors should note that the UK release of the album will include one extra track (a la the recent Elvis Costello release).

[KLM]

Steve,
Thanks for the tip. I downloaded both tunes and they do sound pretty good. I will have to pre-order this one. Robert Plant's music is kinda hard to classify in that it does change from album to album. Although a huge Zeppelin fan, Plant's music was always very different and almost more "out there" in style versus the heavily blues based (and later Eastern culture) music of Zeppelin. This is not really a comparrison between the two as they both stand on there own. Thanks again.