The Dailies

< April 21, 2017 >

Word of the Day

Semantics (n., seh-MAN-ticks)

The study of meaning in language or the meaning of a specific word, phrase, or sentence. Something meant to be quibbled over and analyzed in detail. Epistemology plus vocabulary.

Gif of the Day

TagsAnimalsDogsHandstandsAnything you can do I can do betterTwo legs good, two hands betterTiny dancer?

Link of the Day

Robert Plant - Lullaby...and the Ceaseless Roar

One of the first items we ever featured on The Dailies was Robert Plant's song "Rainbow." We used it as a test item. It aired before our official launch, and, due to our longstanding policy to not repeat things (unless there's a very good reason), it has been effectively lost to history.

In the meantime, the album that "Rainbow" appears on, "Lullaby...and the Ceaseless Roar," has become a favorite. It's an album that takes some effort to appreciate. There are very few straightforward songs. Instead, the album is full of layers, both in sound and lyric.

Plant recorded the album after a breakup with folk songwriter Patty Griffin, and his lyrics are unusually open. There is heartbreak mixed with age and philosophizing. Plant has lived nearly seventy years; his thoughts reflect that. The sadness is less fiery but longer burning. To be alone at his age? What will facing the end look like?

The music, too, is nuanced. "Lullaby..." feels like a culmination of Plant's career: blues and folk remixed with all manner of electric and acoustic instruments. The standard "Little Maggie" gets reinvented with scurrying melodies, psychedelic production, and muted drums. Plant has famously avoided returning to Led Zeppelin, but here, he cleverly borrows from his roots ("Poor Howard" is a clear reference, and a line from "Thank You" becomes the beginning of a song here). The music invites you into its blending curves and thumping crevices. There is always something in the mix to rediscover.

Ultimately, "Lullaby..." is an album of displacement. Plant has been in and out of love, in and out of Led Zeppelin, in and out of popularity. The music has the low pulse and beat of club songs but its melodies are anything but rhythmical. Plant is outside the club now, his crooning a far departure from his bellowing Golden God years. And he is alone. Although the pain is clear, Plant has rarely been happier losing himself in music. The result is an album that lingers and fascinates with each revisit. Turn it up.

TagsMusicRobert PlantLullaby...and the Ceaseless RoarCulminationsHistoryBeen a long time since I rock and rolled?

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Bird rocks out to Elvis

We've all been both.