This is the solo project of Robert Plant, once lead singer of Led Zepplin. Pictures At Eleven was his first album released after the fall of Led Zepplin. Robert Plant has released many albums since then, The Mighty Rearranger is his latest effort.
Being a fan of Robert Plant, I was happy to get the chance to review The Mighty Rearranger. Robert's voice is still in excellent form and flies as high as ever it did. He sings rather breathily on several of the songs and there is some chant-like singing as well. The music has a 70's vibe and sometimes it has tribal and mid-eastern influences to it. The softer songs have a nice laid back groove to them. The production was a little strange: parts of it are clear and other parts are unnecessarily not. It made the guitar-work sound dirtier than most Plant albums and though the lead-work was good I could've done with more full-fledged solos. When they came, though, they were perfect, no lame solos for Plant! The songs are long, many of them slightly over 12 minutes in length. This is a blessing on the good ones and really too bad for the one that wasn't (Brother Ray). I can't help but feel that with 11 other songs I like on one level or another, it isn't much of a problem in this case.
My favorite songs off this album are Takamba, which has a great mid-eastern feel and groove, and the cool keyboard effects and semi-chant of Tin Pan Valley. The very catchy Freedom Fries earns an honorable mention as the kind of song that makes me want to dance and high-five someone.