lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar
The magic of Robert Plant’s tenth solo album, *lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar*, is its ability to combine a pastiche of disparate musical fragments with effortless fluency. Coming to life with a richly orchestrated version of “Little Maggie”—a traditional bluegrass tune popularized by The Stanley Brothers—Plant interweaves a scrawl of modal strings, grinding electric guitars, and laser-beam synths. And yet, the vocalist and his Sensational Space Shifters (a group that includes versatile guitarist Justin Adams and West African percussionist Juldeh Camara), make the genre-defying collision of musical ideas—old and new, familiar and exotic—seem comfortable and uncomplicated. “Rainbow” opens with a ringing hand drum and buzzing guitar, rising to an etherial chorus of cooing “ooh”s. Turn It Up” combines a righteously distorted riff and jaunting, syncopated percussion. Even the most straightforward songs, like the reverberant ballad “Somebody There,” are sumptuously ornate. The result makes *lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar* a profound musical endeavor, as brilliant, mystical, and difficult to classify as the artist himself.
After years spent reinterpreting the work of others, lullaby sees Plant stepping up with his first batch of original songs in nearly a decade and some of the most bravely confessional writing of his career. What he’s doing here stays true to the original spirit of Led Zeppelin in a 21st-century globalized, WiFi-accelerated context, bringing together sounds archaic and modern, rustic and exotic, visceral and vaporous.
Cinematic. Organic. Dervish. Delta. Industrial. Celtic. Tribal. Gypsy. Yearning. Thrilling. The words to describe lullaby…
Check out our album review of Artist's Lullaby and . . . The Ceaseless Roar on Rolling Stone.com.
“The whole impetus of my life as a singer has to be driven by a good brotherhood,” says Robert Plant of his new album. Recorded with current touring set-up The Sensational Space Shifters it is, in his own words, “African trance meets Zep.” Much of lullaby…and The Ceaseless Roar is uncompromisingly true to that folk heritage: Little Maggie is a hot desert throb, a bustle of djembe drums and upright bass.
Album review: Robert Plant - Lullaby And… The Ceaseless Roar. A searing, soul-searching jewel...
<p>Back from America, Robert Plant continues to go his own way with beguiling results, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong></p>
Led Zeppelin's former frontman faces up to ageing, alienation and heartbreak as his band assimilate wide-ranging influences, writes <strong>Alexis Petridis</strong>
Robert Plant - Lullaby And… The Ceaseless Roar review: A diverse and inventive album that defines Robert Plant's career.