Goodness gracious me, we’re saved, as Plant goes from a scream to a whisper!
Release Date : 26th September 2025
Label : Nonesuch Records
Format : CD / Vinyl / Digital
THE SHOCK OF ANTICIPATION
Possibly one of the more keenly anticipated albums of the year, still the shock comes in hard, appreciating quite how soft his voice now is. Soft not as in weak, mind, soft as in exquisite control and carriage. Of course, we knew he had this in him, as the quieter moments throughout his long career have always been able to demonstrate, but it is just that he was always such a consummate screecher. There is no screeching here. Even having seen him sing live with this band, the transfer to studio and disc feels to have dialled him down still further, making his forays with Alison Krauss seem like, well, rock and roll. But we are ahead of ourselves.
PLANT OR NOT PLANT?
For a start, he wouldn’t like my start to this, with the focus being so centred. He, Robert Plant, lest that not be obvious, didn’t really want this to be a Robert Plant record. At least, not in any received sense of the word, his desire more for the band to be the focus, the musicians and the singers, of which he is but one. I get that, and as you listen, so too will you, but, even if he doesn’t, so much, the other members of the band still have a living to make.
Saving Grace, the band, are going to sell a great many more records and concert tickets if they blag up their biggest draw. Which, ultimately, for them, can only be a good thing, so superb are their contributions to the whole. And, in Suzi Dian he may just have the best foil yet to his vocal prowess, deserving every single inch of her almost but not quite equal billing. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say Plant needs to be playing at the top of his game to keep up with her, let alone the rest of them. And, praise be, he is.
GETTING IT TOGETHER IN THE COUNTRY
The preamble has always been that this was going to be a folksier affair than ever he has veered towards before, but this is far from a folk record in any usual sense, not least with the scattered source material all gathered up together, encompassing blues, gospel and country as well, yet all combined into a sonic combustion that makes them all seem hewn from the same block. The instrumentation is largely electric, even if the amplification largely suggests otherwise, the whole smacking of a band “getting it together in the country”. Which is broadly how, where and, probably, why they made it.
GENTLE CROON
Chevrolet opens proceedings, a song that has had a lot of chassis work over the years, since starting life as Can I Do It For You, for Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie, back in 1930. Donovan then reclaimed it, in the 60’s, as his own, bypassing all the intervening names and versions, naming it Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness), remember that, if incorporating the automobile aspect introduced by Lonnie Young, in 1959.
Aside from making me feel that, had the Don had his time over again, he would be seen as a cooler dude than history now pretends, Plant and Dian gently croon appeal into the tarnished bodywork, over slow ripples of steel string banjo and motorik drums. The banjo comes from Matt Worley, whose multi-instrumental prowess is one of the jewels here on hand, with Oli Jefferson on the drum seat. A steady profundo drone provides the lower notes, courtesy Barney Morse-Brown’s cello, taking the place of any more orthodox bass, much as he did for The Imagined Village. Listen carefully, and there is accordion, from Dian, in there too.
ALL VERY PROMISING
As I Roved Out may or not be the one I know, as the arrangement makes it quite hard to tell, what with Jefferson now pounding his kit into overdrive. Worley, still on that banjo, imparts the flavour of an old rural blues and the pair of them are pushing the song progressively forward, whilst the two singers travel in an opposite direction, slowly and languidly conveying the lyric. Tony Kelsey adds crashes of baritone guitar and very John Paul Jones-y mandolin, the contrasting velocities of the arrangement working both convincingly and counter-intuitively. Plant is mixed a little higher for this one, allowing some of his trademark “well well“s and “oh oh“s to be liberally sprinkled in, and sounding all the better for Dian’s pristine harmonies. These is all proving very promising.
FLOATING PINDROP
But suddenly any barriers are breached, these two songs merely a warm-up act. The whole record palpably lifts a notch, several, as It’s A Beautiful Day lurches into a delicate country waltz of being. An old Moby Grape song, Plant’s voice barely coalesces, scarcely more than a whisper. Plant tackles the verses, with Dian and Worley supplying first some cooing backing vocals, and Dian then adding some counterpoint as the song floats to a pindrop close.
Before you can recover, Soul Of A Man fires up some gospel blues, slow rolling banjo again clashing with distorted baritone guitar. The lead vocal, when it comes, is neither Plant nor Dian, this time the group democratic allowing Worley a go at the mike. And it’s a good turn, too, slightly frayed about warm edges. The distortion dynamic, which should contradict the cleaner clout of acousticity, is clearly a thing. A thing that I like.
STOP ON A SIXPENCE TO TRIUMPH
Ticket Taker has Plant and Dian back centre stage. I would say that Dian is effectively taking pole position for this one, Plant content to show how well Alison Krauss had taught him the necessary techniques of harmony. Set to paired acoustics, from Worley and Kelsey, muted percussion and cello give some sensitive grounding. The balance beteen the constituent parts is immense, making for three corking tracks in a row, the stop on a sixpence as this one ends a triumph. Not just three, though, as another staple of trad. arr., I Will Never Marry, becomes a showcase vocal extravaganza. Bookended, and in the middle, by flashes of distorted guitar, Plant, Dian and Worley would be the choir at any Heaven I would choose. Sometimes each singer becomes individually discernible, then blending together by turn in deft alchemy, courtesy the band and Plant’s confident production.
A SEARING SQUALL
Respite really is needed after that assault on any ability to take it all in, and it is provided by the not quite rockabilly of Martha Scanlan’s Higher Rock. Scanlan is a Montana based singer-songwriter, and Dian gifts it with her first full lead vocal. Her instrument is liquid, notes held with a clarity that steers clear of look at me. Just as you rue that very point, a fierce squall of searing harmonica peals in, from Plant, proving his recent guest spot for Paul Weller was no fluke. The singers then swap roles but it is the harmonica that sticks.
Too Far From You is a meandering Everlys-esque song that keeps Dian in pole position, that effect amplified as Plant slots in alongside her. Some booming, and untreated, baritone guitar adds some suitable gravitas, before Dian then upends expectation, stretching out in both volume and lack of restraint, a plangent howl that sits well alongside Plant at his best. Which is the cue for him to enter with some urgent vocalising of his own, before the track dissolves in a sea of moans.
RETURN OF THE ANGEL
Is anyone missing Plant the rock singer, microphone stand a’twirling? Perhaps mindful of that expectation from his more longstanding fanbase, Everybody’s Song is up next, the closest thing to cast minds back to the tousle-haired angel on the Swansong record label. OK, not close as in Led Zep close, but it is certainly an adjacent rocker, if with complex layers of scaffolding wrapped around it. Morse-Jones is plucking high end pizzicato bass from his cello, and the guitars wail convincingly. This is another song from the Low catalogue, previously ploughed by Plant with such good intent. Amidst the orthodoxy, cuatro chimes to add some exotic raga like hues. It wasn’t expected.
TEMPTATION TRUMPED
Mindful of some way to bring everything down and to a mutually agreeable close, it is back to gospel that Saving Grace closes, a gentle admonition around keeping on keeping on. Rippling acoustica contains the harmonies of Plant and Dian, with a low slow vocal drone, from the others, to accompany that of the cello. A brief phased instrumental coda and we’re done. Six years in the making, the worth is in the wait, the attention to detail trumping any temptation for an earlier quick fix.
The band tour later this year. What price Croppers next year?
The tour:
A song for everybody:
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