Most rock stars of the ‘60s and ‘70s eventually faded. They ran out of ideas, their audiences refused to grow with them or they fell into the easy-money nostalgia circuit. Along with Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Robert Plant is among the few major artists of that era who continued to evolve and make consistently good albums.
The two-CD Digging Deep is a best of culled from a string of albums Plant released from the ‘90s through the ‘10s, topped off with thee unreleased tracks. In many cases, he built on the Led Zeppelin legacy, guiding their blues-rock-metal along new channels. His voice moved from a murmur to a scream as he embraced elements of techno as well as ethnic music originating beyond the U.S. and UK, especially subtly synthesized African elements.
While his own songwriting remained in top form, some of the memorable tracks on Digging Deep are covers. Especially strong is his transformation of The Youngbloods’ “Darkness Darkness” into a deeply personal statement of regret. He’s also evocative on Toussaint McCall’s “Nothing Takes the Place of You” and proves adept on Charlie Feathers’ “Too Much Alike,” a rockabilly duet with Patty Griffin.
