Review Summary: Borrowed Nostalgia for the Unremembered 80s
For anyone who grew up as a teenager in the 90s the previous decade's music will forever be associated with uncomfortable feelings of embarrassment and mistrust. The ethos of grunge was to keep a core integrity and grittiness to the fore at all times, in other words the antithesis of what the 80s mainstream pop and rock scenes were all about. Polished production, the heavy use of synths, programmed drums, way too much cocaine...this was the language of the yuppie, of yesterday's cool, and as a result was deemed as naff as that long discarded fluorescent pink and orange shell suit lingering at the back of the wardrobe. I was no different in those days, as far as I was concerned you could've taken the master tapes of 99% of the stuff that I'd heard from the previous decade and put it all in one ginormous time capsule to be buried somewhere in the middle of Jon Bon Jovi's ranch (I'm guessing he has a ranch).
This was a deep wound but time has slowly healed over most of my misgivings and I've grown to, if not fully embrace the musical era of my early childhood, at least come to peace with it to the extent I no longer view it as entirely evil; yes I now accept that a million souls sporting massive shoulder pads couldn't all be wrong and that my beloved 90s were, with hindsight, home to some equally abhorrent musical trends.
Robert Plant's 1988 release 'Now and Zen' was a hugely significant milestone in this process of reeducation, an album I already knew well from my youth, and one I'd not re-listened to since the advent of the compact disc. My childhood memories were that this was an overwhelmingly cheesy 80s album and I approached this rediscovery with a fair amount of scepticism born from investigating most of Led Zeppelin's back catalogue in the interim period; my expectation was that this album would fall rather short in comparison but, to my great surprise, the reality was quite different.
Like a lot of rockers who made their name in the 60s and 70s Robert Plant was widely regarded to have gone hopelessly adrift by the mid 80s. By 1987 he'd released three solo albums and each had been an exercise in denial; here was an artist going to untold lengths to hide from his rock heritage. 'Now and Zen' marks the point Plant stops trying quite so hard at distancing himself from his roots and allows himself to throw some of those familiar rock god shapes again; tellingly he even goes as far as inviting old stomping partner Jimmy Page to play on one of the album's singles 'Tall Cool One'. As successful as this reunion proves to be, intriguingly it's a more unexpected collaboration that reveals itself as the true secret to this album's success.
This release sees keyboardist Phil Johnstone establish himself as a perfect songwriting foil for Plant, a partnership that would continue long into the future. While guitars certainly flesh out many of the arrangements here they remain in the most part an embellishment, rather it's the keyboard that forms the musical backbone in the place of any rhythm guitar. This inspired choice gives the sound an unexpectedly rich pop lustre that you perhaps wouldn't have thought Robert would run with. Surprisingly this sound is one that fits bluesy horndog Plant to a tee as he sands off the rough edges of his voice to deliver a masterclass in smooth and faintly mystical pop vox. Whether tackling the consummate 'ballad-writer's ballad' 'Ship of Fools', rockabilly doo-wopping 'Billy's Revenge' or the super-slick dance pop (and unexpected masturbation ode) 'Dancing on My Own' the man never fails to impress.
Looking back at Plant's solo career you can't help but see 'Now and Zen' as an all important confidence boosting shot in the arm that paved the way for future successes like 93's eclectic 'Fate of Nations' and the well received Jimmy Page collaboration 'Walking Into Clarksdale'. He'd eventually settle into the traditional elder statesman 'tasteful' genre territories of folk and country but strangely his song writing would never again match the immediacy and easy melodic charm of the tracks included here. The 80s sucked hard for a lot of us, and Mr Plant more than most you'd think, but it's important to remember they weren't all bad. Just mostly terrible.
