Dreamland

by

Robert Plant

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Robert Plant's Dreamland gives me the perfect excuse to go off on a rant about Classic-Rock Radio. Every radio market in America has at least one of these, the ones for whom time began around 1968 with the advent of psychedelic rock and ended ca. 1977 with the advent of Punk. The stations playing songs from a decade earlier than Classic Rock's birth at least have the honesty to call themselves Oldies stations. Meanwhile, the good old Classic Rock stations stay stuck in their endless, mindless time-warp loop of "Led Zeppelin A-to-Z Weekends" and "Let's roll some dice and see how many songs in a row to play by the Floyd Boys." What gets me about those stations is that I can understand their reluctance to play anything recorded since the invention of the CD. I disagree with them 100% but at least I understand the (closed) mindset. It is, after all, called Classic Rock for a reason, so it should be classic right? But what gets me is the way they turn on their own idols, worshipping only the fading black and white images of careers that are still extant and in some cases even vital.

Which brings me to Mr. Plant. Turn on a radio just about anywhere and spin the dial and you'll find Plant's three-decades-old work with Led Zep playing. But why in the name of all that is good and proper, is "Darkness Darkness" not played in heavy rotation? So the geezers love "Kashmir" so much it's practically a religion, while that song's spiritual descendent, and a hell of a great tune, gets ignored.

Dreamland is mostly made up of covers of old blues and folk songs, given the full-on psychedelic treatment, usually of the heavy variety. 36 years after he started, Plant is still reinterpreting classic blues songs like Bukka White's "I Believe I'm Fixin' to Die" exactly like he did back in the day. Only these days he gives proper credit to the original songs authors. The aforementioned "Darkness Darkness" was originally by the Youngbloods, and while I've never heard it I imagine it sounds little like the pachouli-scented skullcrusher that it becomes in the hands of Plant and his talented band (which includes former Cure guitarist Porl Thompson!) Ditto for the warhorse "Hey Joe," done a thousand times before but almost unrecognizable in this blasting psyche-out version.

Plant does bring down the room with a beautiful and heartfelt version of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" and the closing "Skip's Song" by legendary Moby Grape co-founder Skip Spence, but the overall feel of this CD is heavy psych-blues with Middle Eastern overtones at times. in fact if this CD has one flaw it might be the overly psychedelic feel which can make a stone-cold sober person dizzy. Perfect if you're in the mood for it, but a bit more of the levity of "Skip's Song" might have made it a slightly better CD.

Robert Plant is still making great music, still challenging himself, still fronting a great band. Lord knows he doesn't need the money, so my hat is off to him for refusing to become a Vegas act. You have to respect his continuing determination to matter. But I wonder how many people know he still matters, and I largely blame the cold robotic churn that American Radio has become.

This is a review of Robert Plant's "Dreamland" CD, which I purchased after watching Plant's performance during the Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

A lot has already been said about the content of this CD and I am equally positive about it. What has me bewildered is the recording quality - the entire CD is overly bright. I mean, bright to the point of harshness that makes it painful to listen to. I have to turn the treble down quite a bit and it still can't compensate for the brightness and excessive sibilance in Plant's vocals (without upsetting the tonal balance).

My audio system is reasonably high-end. I have also tried this CD on two other music systems, with similar results. I am tempted to pursue the matter with the recording company but hold no illusions that something will come of it.

A shame, really, given how much I like Plant's performance.