Robert Plant – “Rainbow” (Song Review)

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God bless Robert Plant! (For him, I guess that would be Odin or Pan.) The workingman’s Celt who burst on the rock scene as a grinning satyr has somehow managed to age gracefully as a performer. Embracing the limitations that time, moans, and smoke have placed on his voice, he has sought out musical contexts that suit his talents while not repeating his past performances.

“Rainbow,” a new track from his forthcoming album, lullaby…and The Ceaseless Roar, finds him once again at the intersection of North African drones and R&B handclaps. It would be easy to dismiss Plant as one of the restless who has gotten native were it not for the deep comfort he has with this music. I don’t mean to imply that Plant sounds any more authentic here than he did when he was evoking Sonny Boy Williamson’s mojo with Zeppelin. Rather, you get the sense that while PBS was out interviewing “authentic” street performers in Mali, Plant was camping out with locals under a sublime desert sky.

Alternating between Bono-like yodeling (circa 1987) and grainy singing, Plant delivers a life affirming message. The lyrical apex comes during the song’s bridge:

Now love is enough
though the world be a-waning
words have no voice
but the voice of complaining
my hands shall not tremble
my feet shall not falter
my voice shall not weary
my feet shall not alter

Credit should also go to the Plant’s proficiency as producer, helping capture the resonance of the drums and the grit of the guitar that buttress his poetic meditations. Too often the nuances of a rhythm track get muffled, making the singer sound like he’s performing at a honky-tonk karaoke night. Here, everything is brought out in sharpest relief.

With the recent release of remastered Zeppelin albums, Plant might have taken a victory lap with his old mates. But he opted out. Never bored, never content to go ice fishing on the devil’s lake, Plant continues to make compelling music.