The New Thing...
Nov. 29th, 2021 07:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanI hope this doesn't become a new thing... letting unknown reviewers 'review ' things - in this case, new albums released this week...
Could someone please take this person's thesaurus away & lock it up somewhere?
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raise the Roof (Warner Records) ★★★★★
Fourteen years ago, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss enthralled us with the Raising Sand album. Once again they’ve engaged the seasoned blues-and-roots maestro T Bone Burnett to guide proceedings, being in his element melding bluegrass, Americana and rootsy rock. Krauss and Plant sound so assured that there isn’t a single misstep as they interpret material from across the American blues, rock and folk spectrum, including songs by Merle Haggard, Lucinda Williams and The Everly Brothers. Burnett has wisely brought their voices to the fore: Krauss’s sophisticated, melodic soprano grounded by Plant’s world-weary, warm, gravelly tones, and their harmonies, as layered and gorgeous as the steel pedal guitar, earthy bass and delicate strings are, are at the music’s heart.
Quattro (World Drifts In) sets the mood: Plant’s singing is gently insistent, while Krauss’ is romantic, classically beautiful and dynamic, as they sing an immigrant’s song of escaping the world, feeling alienated, “Where fields are burning/ From the day you’re born”. Seamlessly they change the atmosphere only subtly to milk the yearning, bittersweet emotion from The Price of Love. The languid heartbeat of a drum creates space for noodling, moody guitar that echoes into desert-haze. Krauss takes the lead, sounding both dreamy and harrowingly hurt as she laments “the debt you pay with tears and pain/The price of love”. It’s easy to imagine a lone saloon where Krauss and Plant go to mend their broken pieces over sweet wine and bitter gin. His utter resignation and heartbroken Southern soul on You Led Me To The Wrong is a tearjerker, and a rare track in which he doesn’t play second fiddle to Krauss.
Although the album’s stories are gothic, brooding or riddled with loneliness and alienation, it is to Krauss and Plant’s great credit that there is always a sense of celebration and redemption. On Trouble With My Lover the twangy, deep bass and restless guitar melody are joined by a surging string section, and although Krauss croons “What good is love if you can’t have it when you want it?“, there’s a playful lightness to her tone, even surrender, as she harmonises with the sultry, smooth Plant on the chorus.
Raising Sand won six Grammys, including album of the year. If there is justice in the world, Raise The Roof will earn the same appreciation.
I've been waiting for this album to come out since I first heard about it earlier this year. I loved the first record they did together & have, of course, been a longtime fan of both individually - obviously slightly longer for Robert Plant (Somewhat controversially, I think his solo works are waaaaay better than Led Zeppelin's 2-Dimensionality)!!
But if I were more lukewarm about it, or not familiar with their previous work, I'd find this wordy, syrupy review a bit of a turn-off. My advice to this reviewer, if they get another shot:- read more Clinton Walker & much less Georgette Heyer
Could someone please take this person's thesaurus away & lock it up somewhere?
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raise the Roof (Warner Records) ★★★★★
Fourteen years ago, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss enthralled us with the Raising Sand album. Once again they’ve engaged the seasoned blues-and-roots maestro T Bone Burnett to guide proceedings, being in his element melding bluegrass, Americana and rootsy rock. Krauss and Plant sound so assured that there isn’t a single misstep as they interpret material from across the American blues, rock and folk spectrum, including songs by Merle Haggard, Lucinda Williams and The Everly Brothers. Burnett has wisely brought their voices to the fore: Krauss’s sophisticated, melodic soprano grounded by Plant’s world-weary, warm, gravelly tones, and their harmonies, as layered and gorgeous as the steel pedal guitar, earthy bass and delicate strings are, are at the music’s heart.
Quattro (World Drifts In) sets the mood: Plant’s singing is gently insistent, while Krauss’ is romantic, classically beautiful and dynamic, as they sing an immigrant’s song of escaping the world, feeling alienated, “Where fields are burning/ From the day you’re born”. Seamlessly they change the atmosphere only subtly to milk the yearning, bittersweet emotion from The Price of Love. The languid heartbeat of a drum creates space for noodling, moody guitar that echoes into desert-haze. Krauss takes the lead, sounding both dreamy and harrowingly hurt as she laments “the debt you pay with tears and pain/The price of love”. It’s easy to imagine a lone saloon where Krauss and Plant go to mend their broken pieces over sweet wine and bitter gin. His utter resignation and heartbroken Southern soul on You Led Me To The Wrong is a tearjerker, and a rare track in which he doesn’t play second fiddle to Krauss.
Although the album’s stories are gothic, brooding or riddled with loneliness and alienation, it is to Krauss and Plant’s great credit that there is always a sense of celebration and redemption. On Trouble With My Lover the twangy, deep bass and restless guitar melody are joined by a surging string section, and although Krauss croons “What good is love if you can’t have it when you want it?“, there’s a playful lightness to her tone, even surrender, as she harmonises with the sultry, smooth Plant on the chorus.
Raising Sand won six Grammys, including album of the year. If there is justice in the world, Raise The Roof will earn the same appreciation.
I've been waiting for this album to come out since I first heard about it earlier this year. I loved the first record they did together & have, of course, been a longtime fan of both individually - obviously slightly longer for Robert Plant (Somewhat controversially, I think his solo works are waaaaay better than Led Zeppelin's 2-Dimensionality)!!
But if I were more lukewarm about it, or not familiar with their previous work, I'd find this wordy, syrupy review a bit of a turn-off. My advice to this reviewer, if they get another shot:- read more Clinton Walker & much less Georgette Heyer
