Robert Plant's new album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, is due out next week. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it. Fans worldwide can hear the new music ahead of its release, and stream the entire album in full. "More than anything, the album waxes gorgeous about music itself," writes NPR's Ann Powers in the NPR First Listen stream. Even with all of the sounds and experiences that have gone into the new album, she says, "No one of these songs sounds precisely like its source; that's the genius of this album. It lovingly layers elements in ways that mirror memory, creating new constructs from floating shards of the musical past."
Robert Plant's new album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, is due out September 9 in North America (September 8 in the UK) on Nonesuch/Warner Bros. Records. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it. Fans worldwide can hear the new music ahead of its release, and stream the entire album in full. To do so, click here.
On the new album, Plant considers "the aesthetic, emotional and spiritual currents that have shaped his illustrious life," writes NPR's Ann Powers on the NPR First Listen album stream. "He finds himself, characteristically, not saddened but renewed."
Powers writes: "lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar is an expression of many kinds of rich, autumnal love ... More than anything, the album waxes gorgeous about music itself—the force that enlightens Plant, allows him to speak to his absent beloved, and helps him through his now more solitary life."
She goes on to laud his band, the Sensation Shape Shifters, as "attuned to his focused eclecticism ... [T]he six-piece group represents Plant's breadth of interests, with past experience in trip-hop, Britpop, Gambian music and jazz." Even with all of the sounds, influences, and experiences that have gone into the new album, says Powers, "No one of these songs sounds precisely like its source; that's the genius of this album. It lovingly layers elements in ways that mirror memory, creating new constructs from floating shards of the musical past."
Throughout, "Plant's voice runs through these songs like a body of water, elemental and remarkably flexible."
There's much more, including the full album stream, at npr.org.
There's still time to pre-order lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar to download multiple album tracks now and receive and exclusive print and a free MP3 download of the complete album available on release day. To do so, head to robertplant.com now.
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