Robert Plant - Pictures At Eleven 1982 (JPN.Remastered + Expanded)

Genre: Rock
Format: ape + cue + log
Released: 1982
Label: Swan Song, Rhino Entertainment Company

After the long, hot journey in the Zeppelin, an oasis. Robert Plant’s first solo album is rooted in the music of Zeppelin, of course, but that’s not to say he’s tied to the past. Rather, he branches out, embracing a lighter, crisper studio sound that indulged in familiar exotica while shedding the heavy intensity of Led’s epic arrangements. You’ve seen the swagger of “Burning Down One Side” and “Worse Than Detroit” before, but unchained from his former band Plant could pass for Steven Tyler in a serious mood. Drummer Phil Collins keeps the beat on its toes, Cozy Powell is more a student of the Bonham school, and the core of Robbie Blunt, Paul Martinez and Jezz Woodroffe are as tight as any band Ozzy brought along for the ride. If you’re looking for a lost Zeppelin album, better to bark up Coda’s tree. If you’re looking for Plant’s genius in full flower, you really want Principles. Pictures At Eleven is simply a stake in the ground; a declaration that there would be life after Zeppelin, and it would look something like this (cue the moody “Like I’ve Never Been Gone”). What’s most impressive about Pictures is that Plant and Blunt come up with some awfully good material. Clearly, I hadn’t given Plant a large enough share of Zeppelin’s glory, and Pictures makes plain that much of what was best about that band (that indefinable groove, the heavy caravans of emotion driven through dark endless night) emanated from the singer. I’d always seen him as something of a slightly more substantive Roger Daltrey, and I didn’t count on Pictures At Eleven being so close to the genuine article. (Meanwhile, Jimmy Page, the grand architect, was noodling out inconsequential soundtracks.) It’s not the first time I’ve put my money on the wrong horse. It was, however, the first time that anyone from the legendary Led dared to get back in the saddle. To his eternal credit, Plant came in riding tall like we remembered.

1. Burning Down One Side

2. Moonlight in Samosa

3. Pledge Pin

4. Slow Dancer

5. Worse Than Detroit

6. Fat Lip

7. Like I've Never Been Gone

8. Mystery Title

Bonus tracks:

9. Far Post

10. Like I’ve Never Been Gone (Live)

ROBERT PLANT

-- vocals, mixing, design

ROBBIE BLUNT

-- guitars, mixing assistance

PHIL COLLINS

-- drums

PAUL MARTINEZ

-- bass

JEZZ WOODROFFE

-- keyboards & synths, mixing assistance

Cozy Powell

-- drums (4,7)

Raphael Ravenscroft

-- sax (3)

Notes:

Remaster of the original 1982 album with two bonus tracks. Track 9 originally was a b-side on the Burning Down One Side UK 12" single, and Track 10 was recorded on tour supporting the Principle Of Moments album, but is previously unreleased.

Tracks 1 to 9 recorded at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth. Track 10 recorded at The Summit, Houston, TX, on Sept. 20, 1983.

This Reissue (P)2006 Atlantic Recording Corporation. ©2007 Swan Song Inc.

Album remastered at Digiprep.

Bonus tracks remastered at RAK Recording Studios.

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - No Quarter (1994) (SHM-CD Japanese UICY-93586)

Genre: Rock
Format: FLAC + cue + log
Released: 1994
Label: Universal Music

01. Nobody's Fault But Mine (Blind Willie Johnson/Page/Plant)

02. Thank You (Page/Plant)

03. No Quarter (Jones/Page/Plant)

04. Friends (Page/Plant)

05. Yallah (Page/Plant)

06.City Don't Cry (Page/Plant)

07. Since I've Been Loving You (Page/Plant/Jones)

08. The Battle of Evermore (Page/Plant)

09. Wonderful One (Page/Plant)

10. Wah Wah (Page/Plant)

11. That's The Way (Page/Plant)

12. Gallows Pole (Leadbelly/Page/Plant)

13. Four Sticks (Page/Plant)

14. Kashmir (Bonham/Page/Plant)

Ever since Led Zeppelin parted ways after the death of drummer John Bonham, fans were clamoring for the mighty band to reunite. This willfully ignored both the vital contribution Bonham gave to the group's mystique and Zeppelin's woeful one-off reunion at the 1985 Live Aid charity concert, but the legend of the band was so strong, reunion rumors reached a fever pitch
whenever vocalist Robert Plant or guitarist Jimmy Page had a new album in the stores. In 1994,
following Plant's moody, misunderstood 1993 album Fate of Nations and Page's widely lambasted collaboration with Whitesnake singer David Coverdale, the two quietly reunited to record a concert for MTV's then-popular acoustic concert series Unplugged. Page & Plant interpreted the Unplugged moniker rather liberally, bringing in a full orchestra, mandolins, and a hurdy-gurdy among other instruments, and Page turned to an electric guitar on occasion. Nevertheless, the "unplugged" setting did give the duo an opportunity to gracefully back away from the bombast that was assumed to be Zeppelin's stock-in-trade; after all, it would have been very hard to do "Whole Lotta Love," "Dazed and Confused," or "Trampled Underfoot" in this setting. Instead, this gives them a chance to dive into the moodiest material, trading heavily on the folk, blues, and world music that gave Led Zeppelin a richness unheard in their heavy rock peers. This might not be what some diehards were expecting from a reunion, but it was a gutsy move from Page & Plant, and the ensuing album, No Quarter, has aged remarkably well. That's not to say that it's timeless music, or a latter-day comeback on the level of Bob Dylan's Love and
Theft, but this is ambitiously atmospheric, restless music by musicians not content to rest on
their laurels. They do draw heavily from their past, but these new versions of classic Led Zeppelin songs sound reinvigorated in these new arrangements. At times, this means that the
songs are given rather drastic reinterpretations -- "Nobody's Fault but Mine" brings the
brooding undercurrent of the original to the surface, "Four Sticks" sounds livelier in this
spare setting -- while other tunes sound similar to the recorded versions but are given
spirited readings ("That's the Way," "The Battle of Evermore," "Gallows Pole"). Between these
revived Zeppelin numbers are a few new songs, all ambitious and solid, fitting right into the
vibe of the album; even if they don't match the older tunes, they're respectable and gain
strength upon repeated listens. As good as much of No Quarter is, it isn't necessarily the kind
of record that invites those repeated listens. At its core, it's an experiment, the sound of
two middle-aged musicians looking back at their groundbreaking work and finding both sustenance and inspiration there. That makes for fascinating listening, both upon the first spin and a return play several years later, but it doesn't necessarily make for an album that's played all that often. [Upon its original 1994 release No Quarter contained 13 tracks. Several years
later, it was reissued overseas, adding the previously unreleased original "Wah Wah" as a bonus
track. Upon the album's tenth anniversary, it was reissued in the U.S. with "Wah Wah," plus the
previously unreleased "The Rain Song," which took the place of "Thank You," which was cut rom
the album on this reissue. Finally, the 2004 reissue retitled the original "Yallah" as "The Truth Explodes."]

AMG review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine