Label: Universal Music (Japan), UICY-93587
Style: Rock
Country: Middlesex, England (9 January 1944), Staffordshire, England (20 August 1948)
Time: 63:51
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 424 Mb
Walking
Into Clarksdale is the album Led Zeppelin fans have resigned themselves
to never getting. The group put a definitive cap on its career almost
immediately after John Bonham died in 1980, and the surviving three
members - Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones - regrouped only for
dubiously special performances at Live Aid in 1985 and the Atlantic
Records' 40th-anniversary concert in 1988. There was certainly a clamor
for more, and Plant and Page in particular circled the idea by guesting
on each other's solo albums (Page on Plant's Now and Zen, Plant on
Page's Outrider). Those collaborations showed they could still play nice
together, even if they weren't together.
The tide changed with
1994's No Quarter: Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded, an MTV
special turned reunion (sans Jones, acrimoniously) that reworked a batch
of Zep favorites and tantalized with four songs. "Never" became "What
if?" Four years later the Page-Plant duo answers the latter question to
frustrating if occasionally pleasing effect. Walking Into Clarksdale
isn't a Led Zeppelin album - couldn't be, for so many reasons both
obvious and hidden in the complex web that is the Page-Plant
relationship. What it does is return the two to a more basic rock band
format, a quartet (with occasional embellishment) that seeks to strip
back the orchestrated ambitions of No Quarter and bring Page and Plant
back to their comfort zone. It's time to get the real Led out again, or
so it seems, for the first time since In Through the Out Door in 1979.
But
anyone who's paid attention during the interim, particularly to Plant's
work, knows we aren't bustling in the hedgerow anymore. The singer has
forayed into all sorts of sonic terrain, embracing influences and
ambiences that separate him from the Golden God of yore. Page has made
his moves, too, more so on Outrider and his soundtrack work than with
the Firm, his two-album team-up with Paul Rodgers. Growth and evolution
aren't just cliches for these two by the late '90s.
Page and Plant
are also aware of what's going on around them and want to be relevant to
the scene that has sprouted during the decade leading into Clarksdale.
That leads them to bring in Steve Albini - an alt-rock kingpin whose hip
cred includes work with Pixies, Nirvana, PJ Harvey and his bands Big
Black and Shellac - to engineer the sessions and put the duo on a
contemporaneous sonic footing. That much is achieved: Albini brings a
particularly jagged, cheap amp tone to Page's guitar and a dry, clean
spaciousness to the band ambience that offers a different kind of punch
than we got from the Zeppelin releases of the '70s - more of a jab than a
haymaker, and appropriate for the pristine CD era. It certainly feels
fresh and even crisp, though it takes a minute to get used to if Houses
of the Holy or Physical Graffiti are more your meter.
Clarksdale,
which was released on April 21, 1998, begins by walking out of Led
Zeppelin III territory, with the shimmering acoustic strum of "Standing
in the Light," embellished by strings and a dancing bass line before
Page cranks up the electrics for the chorus. It's a joyous celebration
of love, more buoyant than In Through the Out Door's "All My Love" and a
hopeful start for this new chapter of Page and Plant's association.
Standouts include "Most High," a swaggering, Moroccan-flavored rock raga
that updates "Kashmir" with help from Tim Whelan of Britain's
Transglobal Underground on keyboards. More polarizing is "Please Read
the Letter," an abrasive and electrified front-porch Hill Country blues
with Plant's harmonies echoing back from the holler.
That balance of
ethereal roots and modern rock is Walking Into Clarksdale's crossroads,
including the tempo-shifting title track, the anthemic "House of Love"
and the blues and surf collision of "Burning Up." The two longest
tracks, each running more than six minutes, are evocative: "When the
World Was Young" is a shotgun wedding of the Middle East and desolate
Texas with lots of air, space and vibe, while "Blue Train" sounds like
it was targeted for U2's The Joshua Tree until it bursts into Page's
late-song fusillade. Their attempts to recapture rock 'n' roll Valhalla
on "Upon a Golden Horse" and the closing "Sons of Freedom" do kick up
some dust but won't replace "Whole Lotta Love" or "Rock and Roll" on
your playlists.
And that's the leveling issue here: Plant and Page
want it both ways on Clarksdale - to be embraced because of their past
but not to relive it, which is admirable but challenging and an eternal
struggle for any musician entering "revered veteran" status.
(ultimateclassicrock.com/jimmy-page-robert-plant-walking-into-clarksdale-review/)
01. Shinning In The Light (04:01)
02. When The World Was Young (06:13)
03. Upon A Golden Horse (03:52)
04. Blue Train (06:45)
05. Please Read The Letter (04:21)
06. Most High (05:36)
07. Heart In Your Hand (03:50)
08. Walking Into Clarksdale (05:18)
09. Burning Up (05:21)
10. When I Was A Child (05:45)
11. House Of Love (05:35)
12. Sons of Freedom (04:07)
13. Whiskey From The Glass (03:01)
