Label: Nonesuch Records (Europe), 7559-79349-3
Style: Rock, Folk, Blues Rock
Country: West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England (20 August 1948)
Time: 49:05
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 320 Mb
Charts: UK #3, AUS #16, CAN #12, GER #10, NLD #29, NOR #9, NZ #7, SWE #12, SWI #7, US #14. UK: Silver
In recent years Robert Plant has been defined by a stylistic restlessness, but his 11th solo album doesn’t deviate wildly in tone from 2014’s Lullaby and ... the Ceaseless Roar. He’s backed once again by the Sensational Space Shifters, who artfully flesh out the rock and folk elements with splashes of bendir, oud and djembe. Lyrically Carry Fire sees Plant address bigger issues, whether the evils of colonialism on New World (for its diametrically opposed perspective, it’s a yin to Immigrant Song’s yang) or nationalism on Carving Up the World Again. Other highlights include the heavy blues and Chrissie Hynde duet on Ersel Hickey’s Bluebirds Over the Mountain, and the knowingly titled The May Queen.
(theguardian.com/music/2017/oct/15/robert-plant-carry-fire-review)
If you’re a Robert Plant fan, you’re probably going to buy this album anyway. Plant, the lead singer and lyricist for the band Led Zeppelin, is a mainstay in the music industry and has built up enough industry cred that he can do whatever the hell he wants. And, at least for his newest solo album, Carry Fire, whatever the hell he wants seems to be a folkish, Americana sound.
This isn’t new ground for him: Plant has previously worked with bluegrass/Americana artist Alison Krauss, and his previous solo albums also had this same sound. This only goes to show how Plant’s made this folky Americana sound his own. Carry Fire is a very chill, very lovely album whose main flaw is that it has a hard time rising from good to great.
(full version: theyoungfolks.com/music/111795/album-review-robert-plant-carry-fire/)
While the three albums he's released since that collaboration with Alison Krauss - 2010's Band of Joy, 2014's Lullaby ... and the Ceaseless Roar and the new Carry Fire - haven't topped it, the onetime Led Zeppelin singer has refused to settle into expectations, unlike so many of his contemporaries who cling to their classic-rock pasts like the past 40 years never happened.
Plant, too, is somewhat stuck in a place he's visited before, but at least the familiar-sounding Carry Fire journeys across the globe in search of those sounds. Once again, he surveys everything from American Appalachian music to Eastern rhythms and textures to populate his songs.
He also makes room for more traditional rock 'n' roll too, pushing against chugging electric guitars and rolling drums on "New World .. " and cooing declarations of love on the acoustic "Season's Song," which wouldn't be out of place on Zeppelin's unplugged third album.
(full version: ultimateclassicrock.com/robert-plant-carry-fire-album-review/)
01. The May Queen (04:14)
02. New World (03:29)
03. Season's Song (04:19)
04. Dance With You Tonight (04:48)
05. Carving Up the World Again... A Wall and Not a Fence (03:55)
06. A Way With Words (05:18)
07. Carry Fire (05:25)
08. Bones of Saints (03:46)
09. Keep It Hid (04:07)
10. Bluebirds Over the Mountain (04:58)
11. Heaven Sent (04:42)
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