Robert Plant
Dreamland

THE REVIEW

It's pointless to hide behind a finger, time has left his body almost intact, but has decided to take his voice: here is the new millennium version of Robert Plant. Don't ask him to hit the high notes, he can't do it anymore, and above all, he doesn't want to. Calm, reflective, spiritual: he is an absolute concentration of class, just as the ten tracks are classy, four of which are original and six are highly reworked covers, composed of this album, released in 2002.

Standing out among his companions are Porl "I played the guitar in The Cure!” Thompson, who contributes to some episodes (the sound is unmistakable), and John "I played the keyboards in Portishead” Baggott. At the base of all the pieces is Delta Blues, which transforms and merges with typically Mediterranean musicality. In “Win My Train Fare Home (If I Ever Get Lucky),” for example, Robert becomes the muezzin of Chicago: pentatonic and Arabic melody chasing each other along unexpected paths. Inevitably, there are also Folk references (see Led Zeppelin III and IV). A certain dreamlike dimension shines through the entire album, sometimes with a twilight and extremely intense touch (at times poignant), other times close to a paranoid nightmare.

The best tracks are “Morning Dew” (absolutely spine-tingling when Plant sings “uh uuuh uhhh”), “Song To The Siren” (complete with a “Cure sound” from the lead guitar), “Darkness Darkness”: they give me a sensation of fluidity, of a journey to embark on when dawn arrives, while watching a crimson sunset. The arrangements of the tracks are very rich, but never heavy: the mix is always very enjoyable. Among the covers, there is also “Hey Joe”, which becomes a paranoic nightmare brought to paroxysm, in which the guitars scourge the air (with a tribute to the sound of Hendrix in the use of an unmistakable Stratocaster and some riffs). If you're wondering if there's anything of the Robert Plant we used to know, I'd say that "Last Time I Saw Her" and “Red Dress” are practically Led Zeppelin tracks. The judgment can't be anything but flattering, I recommend downloading it, making it yours, and then purchasing it, as it's the classic album that sneaks into the player when you don't know what else to put on.