Listen to Robert Plant’s New Song, ‘Bones of Saints’
Robert Plant's "Bones of Saints," the latest advance single from his upcoming album Carry Fire, once again confounds expectations. Listen above as he halts a propulsive, rockabilly-style riff with this cinematic mid-song vocal, utterly transforming the track.
That gutsy blending of genres and feelings has become a trademark of Plant's collaborations with the Sensational Shape Shifters over the years, but it also has something to do with where Carry Fire was born.
“We recorded it in a studio next to Peter Gabriel’s Real World, not far from Bristol and Bath in the West Country," Plant said in a new interview with Michael Hill. "It’s a real hive of industry there. Working alongside the main studios, we’d encounter many artists from around the world. It’s an inspiring atmosphere. You meet Welsh singers, African players from Niger, and American bluegrass goddesses passing through. It’s a creative place.”
Plant produced Carry Fire, with contributions from everyone in the Sensational Shape Shifters, as well as engineer Tim Oliver, in a similar set up to 2014's acclaimed Lullaby and ... the Ceaseless Roar. Guitarist Justin Adams shifts credit back to Plant, however, when discussing these thrilling moments of musical alchemy.
The former Led Zeppelin singer created "an atmosphere where suddenly lightning is more likely to strike," Adams told The New York Times. "In collaborative music, it's often not a question of careful writing and composition and all these sorts of things. It's more the spirit of the moment when things come together in a flash. And he's an expert on that."
Plant has been working with the Sensational Space Shifters, on and off, since 2002. Carry Fire, his 11th solo album, will be released on Oct. 13.
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