Review: Band of Joy by Robert Plant

Robert Plant continues his mini-revivial with the release of Band of Joy, building on the excellent collaboration with Alison Krauss on 2007's Raising Sand (which I tremendously enjoyed). Sticking to his new style of roots-rock, Robert Plant has put together a diverse collection of cover versions and modern songs, teaming up with various country musicians (like Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller).

Robert Plant was so proud of the work done on this album that he decided to name it after the first band he was ever in, with his soon-to-be Led Zeppelin buddy John Bonham, Band of Joy. So when you combine this acclamation with the originality of his great last effort, I had high hopes for this album - unfortunately though I came away slightly disappointed.

The album starts off very strong, with a cover version of Angel Dance by Los Lobos, a fine track indeed (see the included video below). The next song on the album is probably my favorite - House of Cards, which has definite Led Zeppelin 'Battle of the Evermore' mandolin overtones.

However, apart from Monkey, most of the rest of the album is unfortunately a mish-mash of country styles, many of them sounding almost too similar to the songs on Raising Sand, rarely reaching the quality of songs on that album.

I guess I still love his Led Zeppelin rock guitar driven style of music too much - and don't think I will ever be able to say that I am a country fan. I just can't do it. And because of that, this album is almost a weaker version of Raising Sand to me. But don't let that stop you - I know many people that love this album, even though I was disappointed with it.

Rating 6.5/10