It’s become somewhat of an unofficial tradition that each April
\n15th, I go postal (oops – accidental Tax Day joke) on a particular
\nalbum that is considered in many circles to be a classic. Last
\nyear, Yes and
\nTales From Topographic Oceans<\/i> was my victim – Jon Anderson
\nstill isn’t returning my calls as a result of that whopper.<\/p>\n
I really didn’t mean for the tradition to continue this year,
\nbut when I dug out of the Pierce Archives (I’m still waiting for my
\nrefund)
\nNow And Zen<\/i>, the 1988 release from Robert Plant, the
\ncreative juices started flowing again, and, well… let’s just say
\nthat Plant was better off when he wasn’t trying to mimic Led
\nZeppelin.<\/p>\n
For the first part of his solo career, Plant seemed to stay away
\nfrom the bombastic rock that was the career of his former band.
\nSongs like “Big Log,” “In The Mood” and “Little By Little” showed
\nthat Plant was an accomplished musician himself, without all the
\ntrappings of a rock star.<\/p>\n
Why he decided to let it shred again I’ll never understand;
\nPlant comes off like he’s trying to milk his past for all it’s
\nworth – and
\nNow And Zen<\/i> fails because of this.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem is Chris Blackwell’s use of synthesized
\ndrums on the two singles, “Heaven Knows” and “Tall Cool One” –
\nhaven’t people realized how hokey these things sound? Of course,
\nthe big selling point at the time was that Plant “reunited” with
\nformer Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page on these songs. Problem is,
\nPage is so far buried in the mix that it’s hard to tell what he’s
\nplaying at all. For that matter, Page’s work on these two songs
\nleaves a lot to be desired – he doesn’t sound as inspired as he did
\non the other Plant-Page side project The Honeydrippers.<\/p>\n
Sticking with one of the singles, Plant’s usage of Zeppelin
\nsamples on “Tall Cool One” is supposed to be an answer to all the
\nrap groups who had done the same thing – but in this case, their
\nusage is embarrassing. It smacks of a lack of creativity – and the
\ntrack itself is a laughable failure.<\/p>\n
And Plant’s return to cock-rock isn’t a welcome change. Whether
\nhe’s talking about whacking the donkey in private (“Dance On My
\nOwn”) or having his inamorata’s “head, heart, arms and legs wrapped
\naround my family pride” (from “Heaven Knows”), embarrassing is the
\nadjective to use again. Hey, Bobby, you probably got parallel more
\nin 1974 than I have in my
\nlifetime<\/i> – and you were in your forties when this album came
\nout. Stop worshipping your dick, just
\nstop it<\/i>!!!<\/p>\n
Ahem… now then. The remainder of
\nNow And Zen<\/i> features some of the weakest songwriting Plant
\nhas utilized since his solo debut
\nPictures At Eleven<\/i> (which, from my vague recollection,
\nwasn’t a bad album at all). “Helen Of Troy” is a late Eighties
\nattempt to capture the fury of Zeppelin songs like “Achilles’ Last
\nStand,” while “White, Clean And Neat” is both a flashback to
\ngrowing up in the Fifties as well as young lust. Sample lyric:
\n“Beneath her skirt, between the clean white sheets \/ It’s such a
\nlong long way from the streets.” Give me a fuckin’ break. (Kirsty
\nMacColl must have been broke when she agreed to do backup vocals on
\nthis album.)<\/p>\n
So does
\nanything<\/i> on
\nNow And Zen<\/i> work? Yes, one track – “Ship Of Fools”. Plant’s
\nreturn to a more moody, melodic form of music captures in five
\nminutes what he had built up his prior solo career for. The song
\nassumes no ghosts of days past, it just plows forward. If only
\nPlant had done this for the entire album.<\/p>\n
It’s funny – when I was younger, I used to love this album (and
\nI still occasionally enjoy hearing “Heaven Knows,” though I’m
\nashamed to admit it after bodyslamming it into the concrete). And
\nmaybe in 1988, to a world still hungry for anything close to Led
\nZeppelin in sound, it worked. But nowadays, this is a tragic comedy
\nof what used to be.<\/p>\n
\nNow And Zen<\/i> offers very little substance and only a little
\nmore flash – and is possibly the low point of Plant’s career. To
\nachieve oneness with the universe, avoid this turkey like you would
\nthe post office on April 15th at 11:55 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6421],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-38836","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-robert-plant","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38836"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}