Robert ‘Percy’ Plant stopped having something to prove some time around 1973. It is to his unassailable credit that he still dusts off the skin-tight denims now and again to show there’s still lead in the old pencil. Over the course of eight solo albums, Plant has dabbled in everything from doo-wop to drum & bass, yet he’s never appeared the embarrassing granddad grappling for credibility. As he sings on “Tin Pan Valley”, “my peers may flirt with cabaret / some fake the rebel yell / me, I’m moving up higher ground”. With “The Mighty Rearranger”, again he seems intent on proving vaudeville is the furthest thing from his mind.
Building on the success of his “Dreamland” project, that most rare of creatures - a credible covers albums, Plant has reassembled the same crack crew of backroom boys. This does rather beg the question, ‘can there be any more bowel-shaking task than filling Bonzo Bonham’s boots?’ The Strange Sensation must be made of stout stuff indeed.
So with recent sidemen alumni of Portishead and The Cure, it’s almost as if Plant could finally put the shark-shagging days behind him if he chose. Trip-hop and Goth-rock must be about the only genres of music Led Zep didn’t take a swipe at. Instead The Strange Sensation mix those mystical modal tunings with Massive Attack and much more besides. It is only when he tries to really rock-out that goldilocks falters a little. The flailing guitar riffs of “Freedom Fries” hold little sway. Pity poor Skin Tyson who has to try and surplant Jimmy Page in our affections.
Plant himself though still has a fine set of pipes, if the screech of “Valhalla, I am coming!” has mellowed to a warmer, far more reflective tone. Adding to this wistful air is the band with their barrage of bendirs and not since "Led Zeppelin III" with a hurdy gurdy in tow, has he sounded so at ease. On “All The Kings Horses” on which he pledges to “weave a circle round the sun”, you can almost smell the smoking fireplace of Bron-Y-Aur. That’s the way it ought to be.
