Now & Zen - Robert Plant

Unbelievably bad

I bought this when it first came out (in the days when I pretended to like Led Zeppelin) and I was stunned at just how bad this was. I wrote a review earlier for Shaken & Stirred which sums up this album as well - it's another slab of terrible 80s pop as well- but consider lyrics which go;

Laahten up beebee ahm in luuuv with yoo!!!
Laahten up beebee ahm in luuuv with yoo!!!
Laahten up beebee ahm in luuuv with yoo!!!
Laahten up beebee ahm in luuuv with yoo!!!

(Translation; "lighten up baby I'm in love with you")

Worst of all the main 3 note riff to White Clean and Neat is a complete rip off of the Spencer Davis Groups Keep On Running, not exactly an obscure song.

Avoid.

Robert Plant - 'Now & Zen' (Atlantic)

This Robert Plant solo CD was good when it first came out in 1988, but is it just me? Has any one else ever considered that after those two Page & Plant reunion tours and CD releases we got in the later '90's that most of Plant's solo works were like more or less a conciliation record? Don't get me wrong, 'Now & Zen' is okay - just nothing to get all that excited about. Tunes I can still get some enjoyment out of are "Heaven Knows", the awesome middle age rocker "Tall Cool One" and "Billy's Revenge". Personally, I think "Ship Of Fools" is simply one of those all too many over-played songs that I'm burned out on. A decent catalog pick.

Good but not great !

There is some good tracks on this one, but I think that ealier solo material was better than this. This one won't make history.
"Ship of fools" is great for sure, "Heaven Knows" is not bad also, but we are light years from the rocking gems of the seventies !

Major break through on 1988, sounds dated in 2007

Released in 1988, this was Robert Plant's fourth solo album (not including the Honeydrippers). It is 47 minutes long and the sound quality is very good. It is now available in a remastered version (I don't think the sound needed fixing) with some bonus tracks.

When this was released, it received rave reviews from the music press, especially Rolling Stone. While his earlier albums sold well, they did not get much respect. Now and Zen was the best received album both critically and in sales, hitting number 6 on the Billboard 200.

On this album, Plant partnered with keyboardist Phil Johnstone for the first. Johnstone has a very heavy influence on the sound.

This CD sounds very much like it came from the late eighties. It is as if you crossed Led Zepplin with later day disco, new wave and punk.

It is lively, energetic and has a crystal clear sound. It has that clean digital sound that most of the best sounding CD's had in the early days of the technology. It reminds me of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms or Pete Townshend's White City.

The CD has some great songs on it, like Tall Cool One, Heaven Knows and the bluesy Ship of Fools.

However, the CD does have that late eighties sound, and it can sound a little dated now. You listen to it, and you know right off it was a product of the eighties. But, it is still very entertaining and one of the good things to come out of the eighties, before Grunge took over.

A slight change of direction for Plant

This album marks a departure from his the kind of music Plant was putting forth on his first two solo discs. It is very cleanly recorded with very restrained, almost fragile, instrumentation in parts. The poppier direction of some of the tunes and the increased use of atmospherics via keyboards may not please all the fans of his earlier solo pieces but the quality of the backing musicians means that, for me at least, things still hang together quite well.

In terms of actual songs, personal faves would be Heaven Knows, Ship of Fools and the stop/start Helen of Troy. This record is a testament to Plants refusal to stand still and his evolution as an artist with integrity and the ability to come up with consistently good material.

A worthy release any Plant fan should get themselves acquanted with.