Pros: Every song is at least good, a few are great. Any Plant fan needs this.
Cons: A few songs are overly political...take it or leave it.
The Bottom Line: Robert Plant has recorded what many will consider his best album since Led Zeppelin. With rich textures, superb musicianship, and great vocals, Mighty ReArranger is great music in every way.
excremento's Full Review: Mighty Rearranger [Remaster] by Robert Plant & the...
Anyone who is familiar with my reviews knows I am a big (huge) Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant fan. I've been waiting for Percy to get back in the studio and lay some tracks. Mighty ReArranger does not disappoint in the least.
It's been interesting to read the press this album is getting. Some are calling it a "manifesto," a "comeback," and his best album since Zeppelin's monumental Physical Graffiti. Personally, I feel Plant's best work post-Zeppelin was 1993's Fate of Nations. I still like that album better than this one. It, too, features varying textures, pop hooks, and, in my opinion, a very good sounding Plant.
With Plant, you always know to some degree what your going to get, but that doesn't mean he's predictable. When I saw my brother on Mother's Day, a couple days before the album was released, I reminded him that it was coming out. "Will it have Middle-Eastern influences?" he asked somewhat facetiously. Yes, Plant likes his world music (I think the stickler would, in fact call it North African music), and he's not afraid to experiment.
In the end, he has crafted a powerful, very inviting album that will stick with you and keep you coming back for more.
The Tracks
"Another Tribe"
"As truth collides, with propaganda
Just another victim on the run
The world outside, all fluff and candour
Seeks to justify the damage done"
I tend to prefer music that is apolitical, but when an artist I generally enjoy does show their politics, I usually shrug it off. The lines above don't really need an explanation. Anyone who doesn't have his or her head in the sand should suss the meaning.
"Another Tribe" eases the listener into the album very nicely. Driven by subdued drumming and supported by shimmering guitar and North African strings (there they are!), the song serves as a nice appetizer: not too much, not too little.
"Shine it All Around"
“These are the times of my life
Bright, strong and golden”
iTunes had this song available for download quite awhile (2 months?) before the full album was released. I never did download it, knowing I'd buy the full album, but I did listen to the clip several times. Thirty seconds is not a lot of time, but what I heard, especially the last 10 seconds or so as the song went into the chorus (if you can call it that) was very encouraging.
Without doubt, "Shine it All Around" is one of Plant's most stirring songs. "Ohhh, shine it all around....Yeah yeah now." Sure, my typing doesn't even come close to doing it justice, but perhaps my enthusiasm for this song will come across. I defy anyone to not sing along when Plant hits the chorus. When it comes up on my iPod, I smile and turn it up.
"Freedom Fries"
"Freedom fries and burns and scars
The liberator goes too far
Freedom fries and screams and yells
The promised land is promised hell"
I had forgotten the phrase "freedom fries" and so the political angle escaped me at first. Muscially, it reminds me a little of "Black Dog," with it's start/stop rhythm. Speaking of rhythm, Plant's rhythm section does a great job on this song. It's perhaps one of the few "throwaways" on this album...compared to some of the other songs, it less memorable, although it's very nice.
"Tin Pan Valley"
"My peers may flirt with cabaret, some fake the rebel yell
Me - I'm moving up to higher ground, I must escape this hell"
Those lyrics from "Tin Pan Valley" have been mentioned in many articles, with Rod Stewart perhaps being the cabaret artist, and Sir Mick as the fake rebel. Musically, it reminds me of "Sons of Freedom" from Walking Into Clarksdale. This song is okay, but I think it takes itself a little too seriously. What are we supposed to think about this lyric: "I take the bottle to the baby, you take the hammer to the pearl/Like this"?
Plant utilizes his "strained whisper" vocal that he often used on Dreamland but on this song it's not too bad.
"All the Kings Horses"
"I pour myself a brand new start
Glad to be falling for the beauty within"
This is a great, delicate ballad in the vein of "Going to California" or "The Rain Song." I almost get a faint recollection of "Song to the Siren" from Dreamland.
This song opens with very nice acoustic guitar work, and then Mr. Plant tells us that "love has come calling." Of all the songs on the album, this one somehow feels the most autobiographical for some reason. "There's no telling where I've been/How I returned here, how much I have seen" seems to be all about Plant. He also sings about being a "soldier of love", but somehow he pulls it off without sounding so corny.
"The Enchanter"
"She's mixing my emotions it's so easily done
In a league with the enchanter on the road to the sun"
More North African influences for this gem. It feels very mysterious, and when Plant sings, "Oh that the stars will light my way/
Oh as my tides dance the ebb and sway," the song feels downright sinister, like "No Quarter" or something. I'm not musically trained, but that had to be a minor chord...I guess.
The song ends with an extended coda, a chance for Clive Deamer (I assume) to stretch out a bit. Very nice.
"Takamba"
"Sing a song of freedom write it in the sky
Pocket full of secrets, a belly full of lies
Fiction to believe in, created then denied"
This song is really good. When Plant hits "sky" in the lyric above and bends it just a bit, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. One can easily assume that the fiction that was created and denied was the WMD story for the Iraq war. Suitably, the North African mood is present. The song reminds me a bit of "Network News" dummed-down a little and bred with "Most High." There are probably a few other elements but I can't place them as good.
"Dancing in Heaven" "Bringing peace to the valley
Carry fire through the oaks and the grove
Precious memory carry
As we move through the circles and stones"
Next to "Shine it All Around," this is my favorite song on the album. It feels like a tribute to some pagan solstice ritual, and the "circles and stones" mentioned above makes me think of Stonehenge, of all things. He sings of a "celebration in rhythm" and "Sing out for the one light." Pagan, right?
Musically, I always think of the Byrds "Eight Miles High" when I hear this song. There is some very nice acoustic work on this song. Plant sounds confident and assured.
Somebody Knocking "Ol black snake
He crawling, slip sliding
Crawling cross my floor"
Also mentioned in many interviews, for this song, Plant simply tried to string together as many blues phrases as he could and craft a song this way. I think it works pretty well. Along with the blues, the band weaves in some North African influences for good measure. From the album credits, there is what I guess is a tehardant or maybe a bendir adding a primitive feel. Whatever it is, it provides what seems like a blast of warm air. Strange.
For comparison's sake, the best thing I can come up with is "Nobody's Fault But Mine" from No Quarter - Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded. Nice.
Let Four Winds Blow "I've been walking with strangers and talking all out of my mind
While the dogs in the manger, elusive and so hard to find"
This is another very good song. There's a slight jazz feel when Plant does a semi-scat bit. There are plenty of atmospherics here, too. There's what I have to guess is a theramin (the classic UFO sound), although I guess it could be another electronic device.
This is a tough one to put my finger on, really, because there are so many textures. At one point, it almost feels like a song from a Western movie. Great stuff.
Mighty ReArranger "Last night as I was laying down and thinking
I was wondering about the road that lies ahead
In my mind I heard the wisdom of the Master
Hey Robert those dreams are only in your head"
The title track is pretty good. There are some nice rhythm changes and wicked harmonica from Robert himself. This is another one that's hard to describe adequately.
Brother Ray
An apparent tribute to the late Ray Charles, this one sounds like a lucky outtake with thumping drums, rolling piano, and exuberant clapping. We hear Plant in full flight,
"Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!
I can't get enough
I can't get enough
Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!"
The back of the CD digipack says this track is just 1:12...but there is in fact a hidden song here, at least the way my CD was indexed. iTunes calls it "Shine it All Around (The Girls Mix)". It is in fact a techno remix of "Shine it All Around" and I really dig it. I normally wouldn't equate Plant with techno and one might wonder if it's consistent with the album as a whole. It's magnificent in my view.
So there you have it. Mighty ReArranger is excellent in every way. Plant and his band (the Strange Sensation, haven't mentioned them at all!) have struck a near perfect balance between words and music. With a few minor exceptions, all the songs are perfect vehicles for Plant's distinctive vocals. It's been a long time since he sounded so good, so confident and vital.
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