Grade: 90/100
Robert Plant’s 10th solo album is a beautiful thing.
“Lullaby and… the Ceaseless Roar” is mostly a series of love songs to the English countryside and the people there.
The title itself describes the album perfectly — Plant’s vocals are soothing, and often the instrumentals are too, but there’s always an impression of power that’s continually trying to break free in all aspects of the music.
Plant had a wildly successful and influential 22-year stint as the vocalist for Led Zeppelin.
Since Led Zeppelin’s breakup in 1980, Plant has experimented in a wide array of genres, diving straight into areas as eclectic as jazz, folk, bluegrass, African traditional music, electronica and even trip-hop.
“Lullaby and… the Ceaseless Roar” blends all of these influences, but with much more of a cultivated, cohesive sound than in Plant’s previous projects.
For example, the first track, “Little Maggie,” has folk fiddle, banjo playing Eastern scales and plenty of well-tempered synthesizers and digital effects.
Despite this, the track sounds less like all of these parts and more like something completely new.
The most exciting thing is that even with all of this innovation, we still get a classic Robert Plant feeling.
Plant doesn’t wail and holler quite as much as he used to, but his emotional vocal quality is as present as ever — maybe even amplified.
I love the third track, “Stolen Kiss,” for these reasons. Acoustic guitar and piano provide an indie acoustic feel, but Plant’s lifetime of experience of leading a band with his vocals provides a dynamic between slow, emotional music and prophetic, “this-needs-to-be-told” urgency.
In a few instances, Plant returns to the English folk ballad form, like in “Poor Howard,” “Up On Hallow Hill (Understanding Arthur),” “Little Maggie,” and its sequel, “Arbaden (Maggie’s Baby).”
The only song on the album with a not-yet-released video, “Rainbow,” is easily the song most likely to be a single. It’s a listenable rock song with many of the qualities of the other songs on the album, but it’s a little more polished for accessibility.
“Lullaby and… the Ceaseless Roar” is Plant’s first studio album with his backing band, The Sensational Space Shifters. The guitar on this album is a great kind of solo rock guitar that fades in and out at just the right times.
The album’s sound is so interesting, it should be well-liked by alternative indie listeners, but it also should be just as enjoyable for everyone else.
With “Lullaby and… the Ceaseless Roar,” Plant has finally experimented enough to know what parts of what he’s learned to rein in create his own new, contemporary sound.
If you’re weary of old rockstars continuing to make music after their original band is long gone, let me solace you. This album is different, and it’s definitely worth a listen.