Getting older, besides all the aches and pains, is a rather beautiful thing. Age gives us wisdom and insight allowing us to do things that we’ve done our whole lives at a higher level. Such is the case with Robert Plant’s latest album. Lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar sees Plant revisiting his roots – both musical and cultural. The threads of his past music with Led Zeppelin and the future of where he wants to go (apparently trance mixed with West African, Celtic and Middle Eastern rhythms) is laid out like a map before the listener. After his delving into the music of America on the critically acclaimed album Raising Sand with Alison Krauss he has not completely shaken the music of that country from his soul and it still pops up here in certain tracks that are a mixture of blues and country music. The album opener and closer “Little Maggie” is an old Appalachian tune. It, his myriad of influences all gathered during his travels, is all rather intricately interwoven to make something completely different sounding. A sort of musical collage. Comfortable in his own skin and that his fans will follow him pretty much on any musical voyage that he wants to take them, Plant makes music that he enjoys rather than that which is inherently commercial. That is not to say that this is not sellable. It is all highly listenable, but most certainly not like anything that you’ll hear on the radio today.
Robert Plant – lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar
