This is the disc that marked the turning point in Robert Plant\u2019s solo career \u2013 the moment that he grew up, synthesized his folk, blues and rock influences, and added a healthy dose of world music. From 2002 forward, this has pretty much been the norm on every Plant album, and because he spent the back half of the 1990s touring and writing with Jimmy Page, it is easy to overlook this album as an important transition. <\/p>\n
Fate Of Nations <\/i>is a sprawling disc of the sort that yields pleasures after multiple listens. There are no easy pop or rock singles that come to mind, and many of the tracks stretch into the five- and six-minute range. Moreover, the range of exotic instruments and sounds may come as a surprise to those who forgot just how varied and diverse Led Zeppelin really was. The end result winds up being one of Plant\u2019s better solo discs, lacking maybe the punch of Now & Zen <\/i>but showcasing a range and vulnerability that Plant really needed at this point in his career.<\/p>\n
Lyrically, Plant has more on his mind this time than the horizontal bop; he addresses global concerns (akin to the album cover) on \u201cNetwork News,\u201d writes a moving mash note to his then-crush Alannah Myles on \u201c29 Palms,\u201d and, surprisingly, includes a tribute to his deceased son Karac. As Zep fans knows, Karac died in 1977 while Plant was on tour; he wrote \u201cAll My Love\u201d about it at the time, but this time the song is a little more personal, approachable and poppier in its musical sound. It received some radio play at the time ad remains an album highlight.<\/p>\n
Pretty much every song has some sort of worldbeat influence, much of it from the violin, harmonium, and hurdy gurdy instrumentation, with a hint of English\/Irish folk coming in at times thanks to guest spots from Richard Thompson and Maire Brennan, but it is used for color and shade instead of a basis for songwriting, which remains midtempo rock and roll. \u201cCalling To You\u201d is one of the better examples of this; other reviewers have likened it to \u201cKashmir\u201d because it\u2019s an easy comparison, but about the only things it shares with that classic song are the tempo and a similar yearning, traveling spirit. Granted, it\u2019s not inconceivable to imagine the song on Physical Graffiti<\/i>, but given what follows on the rest of Fate Of Nations<\/i>, it\u2019s almost like a farewell to the past.<\/p>\n
The near-Arabic\/Moroccan sound of \u201cDown To The Sea\u201d is darn near revolutionary for Plant at this time and a sound he and Jimmy Page would explore further on 1994\u2019s No Quarter <\/i>tour (specifically, \u201cYallah\u201d). \u201cCome Into My Life\u201d and \u201cThe Greatest Gift\u201d are slower but no less compelling, and the cover of \u201cIf I Were A Carpenter\u201d is quite good, as is Plant\u2019s vocal performance on \u201c29 Palms,\u201d specifically the wordless \u201caaah\u201d buildup from each chorus. And the loping, confident \u201cMemory Song\u201d layers electric and acoustic guitars with Plant\u2019s minor-key, difficult vocal spot and a long instrumental fadeout.<\/p>\n
As with Plant\u2019s solo releases up to this point, there are a few areas of synthesizer washes that date the record a bit as well as a couple of inessential songs, such as on \u201cPromised Land,\u201d most of \u201cGreat Spirit\u201d (sans a very good guitar solo), and \u201cThe Greatest Gift,\u201d which squanders a good opening by going on too long. However, the angry closer \u201cNetwork News\u201d bubbles over with the themes of the album set to a pulse-racing beat and pointed lyrics: \u201cFlags, princes, kings \/ Patriotic tools \/ As freedom lies in twisted heaps \/ Whose final breath his soul to keep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fans of the original album will likely want the remastered version with six extra tracks, including the fantastic acoustic \u201cColours Of A Shade\u201d (a song it\u2019s easy to get lost in), a psychedelic-rock rarity called \u201cRollercoaster,\u201d an acoustic version of \u201cGreat Spirit,\u201d the folk ditty \u201c8:05\u201d and the awkward bad idea \u201cDark Moon,\u201d which should have stayed in the studio.<\/p>\n
For those who wondered when Plant broke out of his Zeppelin shell for the first time and got real, Fate Of Nations <\/i>is definitely worth a listen. It shows a true artist coming into his own instead of being tethered to the past (which, granted, can be both comforting and lucrative and therefore difficult to abandon). Indeed, Plant would reunite with Page for a few more years right after releasing this one, putting the sound and sentiment of Fate Of Nations <\/i>on hold until he resumed his solo career in 2002. It\u2019s a good but not essential album and one that will yield rewards for fans and the curious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6421],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-44801","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-robert-plant","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44801","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44801"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}