Plant shows he can turn over a new page

ROCK

ROBERT PLANT

Lullaby and … The Ceaseless Roar (Warner)

****

MOST people think of Robert Plant as the Led Zeppelin rock god, but he has also been a passionate fan and discerning listener in thrall to British folk and American country and blues.

Fairport Convention and Incredible String Band were just as much an influence on Led Zeppelin as Muddy Waters was.

On 2002 album Dreamland there were covers of songs by Tim Rose, Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan and Jesse Colin Young. Raising Sand, his 2007 album with Alison Krauss, featured songs from the likes of Gene Clarke and Townes Van Zandt.

The breakout success of that album also helped Plant to step out from the giant shadow of his early band, and presumably contributed to the frictions that have stopped Plant and Jimmy Page working together since the 2007 Zep reunion show.

Lullaby is an album of substantially original material, expanding the world music explorations with his band the Sensational Shape Shifters, revealed when they played Byron Bay Bluesfest last year.

It finds him moving on from his Nashville period (and his relationship with Americana songwriter Patty Griffin), recording in England, with Celtic and world music flavours pushing to the fore. Juldeh Camera, who plays kologo, a two-stringed lute, and riri, a one-stringed fiddle, is a key member, as is Justin Adams on guitars and a variety of African instruments.

Opener Little Maggie is an Appalachian folk song, reimagined by the accurately titled Shape Shifters, with throbbing synthesiser bass and an exotic amalgam of instrumentation and African rhythm. The results defy easy categorisation, which of course is something Plant has been trying to do for most of his career.

A Pocketful of Golden is equally slippery with its shuffling beat and use of strings and traditional instrumentation, another example of Plant’s attraction to the mythical in his lyrics.

Embrace Another Fall glides in a trance-like state before a huge electric guitar ups the ante, precursor to Julie Murphy adding to the mystery, singing a part in Welsh. The result is closer to Peter Gabriel’s solo work than Raising Sand, and indeed this album was partly recorded at Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath.

Turn It Up fractures the blues and early rock ’n’ roll, a little bit Tom Waits, as heard crackling through a car radio speaker out on some lonesome highway as Plant sings, “I’m turning into someone else I’ve heard so much about’’.

A Stolen Kiss is a slow-moving piano hymn where Plant observes: “I am drawn to the western shore/where the light moves bright upon the tide/To the lullaby and ceaseless roar/and the songs that never die.’’

Somebody There is a rock tune, epic 12-string electric guitar and all. Who could the somebody be, we are left to wonder? But if you loved the widescreen grandeur of The Rain Song, chances are you are going to approve.

Noel Mengel

FOLK ROCK

ADAM COHEN

We Go Home (Cooking Vinyl)

****

You know that moment you look in the mirror and you catch something of a parent in the reflection? Imagine what that’s like for the son of Leonard Cohen. In his early career Adam tried his best to avoid comparisons, but on 2011’s Like a Man he faced it, nylon-string guitar, love songs and all. On We Go Home he goes even better with songs about the travails of the heart and the call of family. If the old man’s work ever rocked your soul, wait until you hear Swear I Was There, which begins with quiet piano chords and ends with Adam pouring out his turmoil: “Oh baby please don’t become a sad song/About how good love used to be’’. Or Fall Apart, which addresses his father’s legacy: “They will speak of my father when he’s not around/You’ll be hearing his voice like you’re hearing it now.’’ The album is richer in sonic detail than Like A Man, and the title tune could even give Adam a hit. Like Sean Lennon, he’s made peace with the DNA and is making records that are not just good but great.

Noel Mengel

CLASSICAL

NINA KOTOVA

J.S. Bach Cello Suites (Warner Classics)

***1/2

Dance movements may have been the structure of Johann Sebastian Bach’s six cello suites, but they breathe with more serious intent in the hands of modern cellists for whom the collection is a repertoire must. The six suites of six movements each (five dances plus a prelude in each) remained mostly a male preserve until the late, great Jacqueline du Pré recorded them as a 17-year-old. Russian cellist Nina Kotova yields no quarter to gender in this recording of the six. Her style remains forthright throughout the 36 dance sections. Playing the 1679 Due Pre Stradivarius cello, Kotova displays a feisty determination to keep command of the music, an assertive approach that produces a distinct clarity of articulation, in slow movements or brisk. While an aggressive tendency at times overshadows the subtleties, it also brings individual vitality to its varying moods. At many points the music fairly explodes with the energy of Kotova’s vigorous yet supple bowing power.

Patricia Kelly

POP

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS

Brill Bruisers (Matador)

****

The aptly titled Brill Bruisers reboots the New Pornos concept by reinventing

the blistering power-pop of Mass Romantic (2000), the oddball classic which

launched Canada’s most celebrated indie group. There is maximum craft and chaos here. Bandleader A.C. Newman and Dan Bejar pen pop masterpieces that evoke the 1960s glory days of the Brill Building while the raw energy of Neko Case’s vocals and Kurt Dahle’s drumming power an album that is relentless and ferocious. Newman, an unabashed fan of ELO’s epic-scale pop, has made a monster sound even bigger. There are more singers — Kelly Hogan provides harmonies alongside Kathryn Calder while Amber Webber of Black Mountain provides a striking cameo on Bejar’s Born With a Sound. The surging title track sets the template, with its pounding chord progression. Backstairs goes further, with Newman using vocoders and ELO-like effects to build a towering pop edifice.

David Costello

POP

MEGAN WASHINGTON

There There (Mercury)

***1/2

Occasionally a pop song comes along where you whistle along doing the dishes long before you realise it’s saying something profound or brutally honest. Here is a bunch more: there is no messing around with metaphor on Washington’s long-awaited second album. There has been a breakup and she writes about it as directly as she can. There is an element of sing-a-sad-song-happy in the bright ’80s-electro of My Heart Is Like a Wheel, where the bubbly beat camouflages lines like “My heart is a wheel/Can’t stop/Gotta go/Someone’s gonna get hurt’’). Sometimes — well, once — she sings a happy song happy (Get Happy). But the ones that hit hardest are when she strips the pop sheen and pours it all on to the keyboard, on Begin Again (a kind of I Hope I Never for 2014), To Or Not Let Go, an Elton-ish piano ballad with string arrangement, and the unflinching soul-baring One For Sorrow, with just voice and piano. Things go wrong, pain waits around blind corners. Writing is useful therapy. The recently bruised might like to approach with caution, however.

Noel Mengel

ROCK

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM

Get Hurt (Virgin)

****

In the months preceding the release of their latest album, Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon warned fans Get Hurt would have a “completely different vibe” to previous releases. Enlisting The 1975 producer Mike Crossey, they’ve made good on that promise, with the Bruce Springsteen-meets-punk rock template further diluted with a variety of other influences. What hasn’t changed is Fallon’s innate knack for melody and opener Stay Vicious begins with a sludgy, Soundgarden-esque riff before a “la-la-la”-filled refrain that recalls Iggy Pop’s The Passenger, while 1000 Years’ “Hey-ey-ey, It’s Alright” chorus is as catchy as any the band have written in the past. The title track is another highlight, as are the rockier Helter Skeleton and Rollin’ and Tumblin’. Break Your Heart is one of The Gaslight Anthem’s most touching ballads to date and the band return to more familiar territory to wrap up proceedings with closing track Dark Places. Get Hurt
is a step forward and a fitting addition to an almost-faultless back catalogue.

Daniel Johnson

ROCK

KINGSWOOD

Microscopic Wars (Dew Process)

****

Not that Kingswood! If you thought these Melbourne rockers were named after the iconic Aussie car (and sitcom it inspired), we’re sorry to say that’s “Bullpitt”. They’re named for a comet their astronomer bassist narrowly missed the naming rights to. That said, their music is as brawny as an Aussie muscle car. Kingswood count Kings of Leon among their influences, and frontman Fergus Linacre’s vocals have a similar soaring, emotive quality to those of Caleb Followill. All Too Much kicks off the album like a blow to the face, but it belies the more sedate and technical tunes to follow. ICFTYDLM (I Can Feel That You Don’t Love Me) slinks along seductively like a smouldering number from Pete Murray or Steve Miller, with synth spicing things up. The moody, atmospheric So Long lights up with a guitar solo, the title-ish track Micro Wars pairs fuzzy guitars with infectious bassline and harmony, and Side to Side swings along pendulum-like. Meanwhile, Linacre tests the upper limit of his vocal range on the noisy Ohio
.

John O’Brien

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