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While listening to Robert Plant’s Band of Joy you can't help but feel that we may finally be able to start getting over him turning down a Led Zeppelin reunion tour. Seriously, in the wake of his multi-Grammy Award-winning 2007 collaboration Raising Sand with Alison Krauss, Band of Joy is as genius as expected, and then some.
The album is an exercise in control and restraint that only a legend like Robert Plant could pull off. Both strikingly beautiful and mysterious, he offers us soulful ghosts of Zeppelin past and a surprisingly eclectic and mystical piece of work that is unlike anything we've heard from him before.
For Band of Joy, Plant took the name of his pre-Zeppelin band and teamed up with the legendary session player and Raising Sand band mate, Buddy Miller to co-produce. Darrell Scott fills the entire album with atmospheric mandolin, banjo, steels and guitar. And country singer-songwriter Patty Griffin backs Plant with stunning, often eerie vocals.
The opening track, Plant’s take on the Los Lobos single, "Angel Dance" will cast aside any preconceived ideas of what this album would/should be. It's ballsy, to say the least. It's also groovy, unexpectedly beautiful and lets you know – very clearly – that the album is going to be surprising.
Band of Joy also features the spiritual classic "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down", a cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Harms Swift Way", as well as "Silver Rider" and "Monkey" – both standout covers of two songs by the Mormon indie trio, Low. There's even a bit of real mountain bluegrass in songs like "Cindy I’ll marry you some day".
Band of Joy is hands-down Robert Plant’s best solo work to date.
The album is an exercise in control and restraint that only a legend like Robert Plant could pull off. Both strikingly beautiful and mysterious, he offers us soulful ghosts of Zeppelin past and a surprisingly eclectic and mystical piece of work that is unlike anything we've heard from him before.
For Band of Joy, Plant took the name of his pre-Zeppelin band and teamed up with the legendary session player and Raising Sand band mate, Buddy Miller to co-produce. Darrell Scott fills the entire album with atmospheric mandolin, banjo, steels and guitar. And country singer-songwriter Patty Griffin backs Plant with stunning, often eerie vocals.
The opening track, Plant’s take on the Los Lobos single, "Angel Dance" will cast aside any preconceived ideas of what this album would/should be. It's ballsy, to say the least. It's also groovy, unexpectedly beautiful and lets you know – very clearly – that the album is going to be surprising.
Band of Joy also features the spiritual classic "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down", a cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Harms Swift Way", as well as "Silver Rider" and "Monkey" – both standout covers of two songs by the Mormon indie trio, Low. There's even a bit of real mountain bluegrass in songs like "Cindy I’ll marry you some day".
Band of Joy is hands-down Robert Plant’s best solo work to date.
