Review Summary: ...Lost in the East.
Robert Plant's refusal to reform Led Zeppelin is a valiant and admirable decision, showing a man well into his sixties courageous and humble enough to explore where he can go as a human as opposed to flogging the dead horse of Zeppelin well into irrelevancy. In the process, it's left Led Zeppelin retrospectively a far better group and Plant far more entertaining. With each release, he's continuously reinvented himself.
With
Pictures at Eleven, he was the grinning, cigarette smoking popstar of the day. With
Manic Nirvana, he was the vicious wailer of Zeppelin days gone heavier and humble. With
Band of Joy, he was the crooning blues protege of his childhood dreams. Finally, on the momentous
Lullaby &... the Ceaseless Roar, he's the legend lost in the wilderness, returning wiser, rounded and beatified in the process.
Certainly, there's stock in claims that
Lullaby is "an eastern take on Led Zeppelin". However, Zeppelin's influence isn't one of overbearing 4-octave vocals and endless guitar solos. Opener "Little Maggie"'s favouring of Eastern instruments and synth shows a slightly odd if not totally approachable application of Plant's description, foiled by his most memorable hook since "29 Palms". Electronic and Eastern elements reappear constantly and, thankfully, appropriately, and take on the guise of contorting and personifying tracks ("Pocketful of Golden"), and subtly propping them up ("Embrace Another Fall", "A Stolen Kiss").
Tracks like "Rainbow" and "Arbaden" make exceptional stabs at Zeppelin's classic hard rocking formula, but it's not a touch on Plant's beautifully morose utterances that captivate the greater part of the record. Love is to be found on "House of Love" (natch), loneliness in "Up on Hollow Hill", all the while backed by his lovely wall of processed beats, unconventional instrumentation and driving guitar work. If it all sounds familiar, that's because it is; the case for this being the best Led Zeppelin album Led Zeppelin never made is strongest here if anywhere else.
But what's become of possible Jimmy Page reunions, and Led Zeppelin nostalgia? After
Lullaby &... the Ceaseless Roar I've gathered my mind and realized quite frankly-
I really don't give a fuck anymore. It's a non-negotiable;
Lullaby &... the Ceaseless Roar is just about the most simultaneously chaotic, inventive and beautiful thing Plant has released this side of
Physical Graffiti. Whether it's his last remains to be seen, but it certainly would be a career well lived if it were to be his swan-song.
