“I'm lost inside America / I'm turning inside out / I'm turning into someone else / I heard so much about,” Robert Plant sings on “Turn It Up,” the fifth song on his 10th solo album, “lullaby and...The Ceaseless Roar.”
These lyrics embody the complexity of Plant’s 48-year-long career, during which the British singer has seemingly explored every facet of American music: psychedelic blues (with Band of Joy), early hard rock and metal (with Led Zeppelin), 1950s-throwback R&B rock (with the Honeydrippers) and stripped down folk and blues in his solo projects. His last release in 2010, “Band of Joy,” showcased progressive folk arrangements of both covers and traditional material, as well as a revived lineup of the eponymous band he originally fronted.
“lullaby” is another stage in Plant’s ceaseless evolution. The album retains its predecessor’s folk-rock core and oft-moody atmosphere, but makes bold progress in arrangement, instrumentation and lyricism.
“Little Maggie” kicks off with skeletal, intertwining riffs played on African and Indian string instruments and banjos, an example of the unique influences Plant brings to traditional bluegrass compositions. The impact of African and Eastern music is evident in much of the album’s percussion, with the use of the djembe and tabal. “Embrace Another Fall” goes a step beyond, featuring a lengthy vocal passage in the Fula language.
World music is not the only influence on the album, which also embraces some aspects of modern electronic music. The best example of this occurs in “Rainbow,” which sizzles with shaky synth drums and pulses of ethereal bass.
“Rainbow” is also the strongest moment for Plant's vocals on the album. Robert Plant’s voice has not aged so much as it has transformed. Long gone are the raw howls of his Led Zeppelin days; in their place is a smooth, airy sound which transitions almost imperceptibly into a still-soaring falsetto.
In many ways, “lullaby” feels like a spiritual successor to 2007’s “Raising Sand,” a T Bone Burnett-produced set of duets with Allison Krauss. The albums’ similarities lie not in their instrumentation, but in their overall ambience, which champions warmth enveloped in almost moody darkness. While “Raising Sand” took a far more minimalist approach to this style, Plant’s own production makes “lullaby” a lush, rich-sounding album.
Though several decades into his career, Robert Plant has clearly not lost creative steam. With its diverse range of sounds rooted in classic rock sensibilities, "lullaby" is a strong addition to Plant’s catalog for both longtime fans and new listeners attracted to musical fusion.
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