Album Review: Robert Plant Band of Joy

Robert Plant <i>Band of Joy</i>. Photo / Supplied

Rating: 4/5
Verdict: After the Grammy-winning Raising Sand, former Zepp-frontman Plant returns with darkness and light

In 2003 this former frontman for Led Zeppelin released Sixty Six to Timbuktu, a double disc retrospective of material from his solo years which was impressive in its scope: old blues and R 'n' B to Zepp-framed stadium rock and his journey into traditional sounds from North Africa.

As a musical explorer Plant hasn't stopped since Led Zeppelin folded in the wake of drummer John Bonham's death. Two years after that collection came the exceptional album with his band Strange Sensation, Mighty ReArranger, which was exotic prog-meets-world music, then three years ago his Grammy-grabbing rootsy rock Raising Sand with bluegrass singer/fiddle player Alison Krauss.

You wouldn't dare predict a Plant album and this one - the title was the name of his pre-Zepp band with Bonham - finds him with Raising Sand guitarist/Americana legend Buddy Miller as co-producer and a small band, with Darrell Scott on mandolin, accordion, pedal steel, etc.

The material is diverse - songs by Los Lobos and Richard Thompson alongside the traditional Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down (lacking the gravitas crusty ol' Willie Nelson gave it on his recent Country Music album), some lost 50s pop and country songs, and originals.

But all are given a twist: Los Lobos' Angel Dance has North African elements; the original Central Two-0-Nine sits somewhere between an acoustic back-porch rocker in Tennessee and his work with Jimmy Page on No Quarter; and there's enjoyably widescreen Petty-like guitar on Townes Van Zandt's once-folksy Harm's Swift Way.

Most impressive are the sonic landscapes given to Low's Silver Rider and Monkey (both unsettling and evocative pieces with Patty Griffin as a ghostly presence) - and at the opposite end of the broad spectrum here, the effortless pop ballad The Only Sound That Matters with its metallic sheen. And throughout Miller and Scott do favour tremolo twang and a veneer of shiny guitar parts.

As interesting as this is - and it is certainly that - the diversity here means emotionally lighter songs (the rockabilly flavoured You Can't Buy My Love, Falling in Love Again, the traditional Cindy over an increasingly jaunty backdrop) stand in contrast to the impressively dark pieces where the real heart of this album beats.

Those mood swings mean Band of Joy - which is far from joyous sometimes - unfortunately ends up slightly less than the sum of its parts.

-TimeOut / elsewhere.co.nz