Originally published in Xpress magazine
by GRANT MCCULLOCH

In one of the most pleasing returns of 2005 Robert Pant and his Strange Sensation band mates have crafted a strikingly contemporary and vibrant work. Redefining what it is to be Robert Plant without necessarily reinventing himself, The Mighty Rearranger fuses Plant’s well known love of all musical things Eastern with the pulsing electronica leased from peers such as Portishead and Massive Attack, not so surprising when you consider the Strange Sensation includes former members of both acts.

It was a long shadow cast by Plant’s former group, the seminal Led Zeppelin but he seems to have accepted the legacy that he helped create and remains responsible for carrying in the eyes of so many of his fans. So much so that there are moments of classic Zep exuberance to be found here on tracks like Tin Pan Valley and the driving Takamba. What must be close to Plant’s finest post Zeppelin release to date will both please fans of his previous work and stimulate a new interest in his music and ideologies.

Originally published in Dallas Observer
By Mikael Wood

At this late date no one expects Robert Plant to make another In Through the Out Door, let alone another Houses of the Holy. So it’s tempting to assume that Mighty Rearranger, Plant’s first album of original material in more than a decade, sounds great only because it doesn’t find Plant dabbling in trip-hop or jazz or because he didn’t hire the Dust Brothers to introduce him to a new generation that only knows Led Zeppelin from the time the Beastie Boys sampled “When the Levee Breaks.” But stay with the record and you realize that Plant and his young bandmates (including two touring members of Portishead, who left their trip-hop at home) have recaptured the epic swing and titanic crunch of prime Zep without getting bogged down in the band’s immovable myth. There’s more tangy North African juice here than ever, and the gorgeous acoustic ballad “All the King’s Horses,” in which Plant sounds unafraid to voice his age, is almost worth going to California to hear. Lyrically, there are problems: In addition to horses, the king has men, and evidently there are lovelights in the world yet to be turned on. But this time Plant’s earned that right.

Originally published in Billboard, Source: Billboard.com

Even during his days fronting Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant earned a reputation as an artist who kept his ears open, absorbing music from as far reaching as North Africa to the latest pop and underground acts. That hasn’t always cropped up in his solo works, however, which have ranged from the exotic to the downright milquetoast, with moments of greatness in between. ||Continue reading||

Originally published in Washington Post page C05
By Richard Harrington Washington Post Staff Writer

There are always going to be echoes of Led Zeppelin in Robert Plant’s solo albums, though there have been times in the 25 years since that group’s demise that the iconic singer has seemed to distance himself from its legacy. Plant’s ninth solo album, “Mighty Rearranger,” his first collection of original material in 12 years, is also the most Zeppelinesque, and on tracks such as “Another Tribe,” “Tin Pan Valley,” “The Enchanter” and the pastoral “All the King’s Horses,” that’s a good thing. ||Continue reading||

Originally published in Radio Times (UK) May 14-20 issue.

Robert Plant’s still a rocker, but these days, he gets his kicks from rugs. Mark Ellen joins him on the carpet.

Imagine a stage festooned with burning bouquets of incense, and the whole place smelling like a Marrakech knocking-shop.

Imagine the singers’ pointy-toed, cuban-heeled boots. Imagine African drums and mandolins, and winking banks of computers full of hip-hop samples. And imagine this being applied, not just to his sterling new hybrid of world music and rock’n’ roll, but to five songs “from the last century,” as he put it, Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog, Gallows Pole, When the Levee Breaks, That’s the Way, and Whole Lotta Love.And the singer swirling in the mist on his beloved Moroccan carpet without spilling a drop of his chamomile tea. ||Continue reading||

Originally Published in Entertainment Weekly
by Dalton Ross

Robert Plant is back with an intriguing new CD. What better time to ask about nasty band spats and what he really thinks of “Stairway to Heaven.”

Robert Plant has sold millions of records, tapes, eight-tracks, CDs and DVDs over the past 36 years. The former Led Zeppelin front man is what you’d call a rock legend. So it’s a bit odd to see him moving about Bleeker Bob’s record store in Manhattan like any record geek, perusing everything from blues-funk favorite Johnny “Guitar” Watson to ‘60s garage one-hit wonders Count Five. “I could spend all day in here,” he sighs. “I used to live in 10-cent stores.” ||Continue reading||

Originally published in Cleveland Plain Dealer
by Gary Graff–Special to The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant says we shouldn’t take lightly the credit his current band, Strange Sensation, deserves for his new album, “Mighty Rearranger” (Sanctuary). ||Continue reading||

Associated Press article–syndicated in numerous publications
By BRET GLADSTONE, For The Associated Press

Outside of being the title of his newest release, “Mighty Rearranger” serves fairly well as a neat synopsis of Robert Plant’s career evolution. ||Continue reading||

Originally published on ign.com
By Spence D.

Robert Plant has been blessed and cursed by that singular of all musical anomalies: The Voice. His distinctive caterwaul provided the blues-metal behemoth Led Zeppelin with much of its hypnotic allure and signature sound. Trying to live within the shadow of his accomplishments with that legendary outfit has been no small task, as every musical endeavor Plant has undertaken in the wake of such has been scrutinized with a fine tooth comb, fans looking for that mystical reconnection. Plant has made good on several counts, but he’s floundered just as often. With his latest, Plant rides the line between such seminal solo offerings as The Principle Of Moments and the arena pop rock thematics of Now & Zen, relying on his penchant for the mutant blues as often as he dips into the surging power chord and raised lighter back of tricks. ||Continue reading||

Originally published in Toronto Sun
By JANE STEVENSON

Critics who have heard Robert Plant’s new solo disc, Mighty Rearranger, have been describing it as positively “Zeppelinesque.”

Songs such as All The King’s Horses and Dancing In Heaven from his first album of original material in 12 years recall such Zep classics as Over The Hills And Far Away and All My Love, respectively.

But if those comparisons really bother the former lead singer of British rock giants Led Zeppelin, he’s not saying.

“Well, it’s very assertive,” Plant, 56, says down the line from Reykjavik, Iceland, recently during a Canadian newspaper exclusive interview with the Sun. ||Continue reading||