Never content on boasting just one legacy with the opus that was Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant continues to press on and reinvent himself. Instead of looking into the past, Plant’s gaze is fixed upon his present-day surroundings. He allows for inspiration to emerge from any place, in any sound or form, only to then smoothly reshape that inspiration into something musical, graceful, and even youthful. What makes Plant such a splendid figure is his constant hunt for reinvention, as well as his musical journeying through cultures and continents in search of something not particularly new but always soul-stirring.
He and his new band, the Sensational Space Shifters, will be releasing their debut album, lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar, on September 9th. This isn’t the first record debut Plant has had in recent years. He has worked with so many different groups and in such different arrangements – most recently with Band of Joy and their elegant 2010 album – that each record feels like a debut of a new artist.
This same feeling is pertinent to the unveiling of the band’s new track, Rainbow. The new song reveals Plant to have abandoned the folk-inspired backbone of his two previous albums for something more akin to the blues and to soul music. It almost appears as if Plant, one of the heralds of modern rock, is wandering back in time and through the history of music, retracing its steps and developments, and leaving his own footprints along the way.
Listen to Rainbow below.
1 Comment
has a tinariwen feel to it, kinda