Stands up well as a statement of solo independence and intent.
Emerging from the ashes of Led Zeppelin as a credible solo act cannot have been easy for Robert Plant: so much to prove, so many ghosts in the closet. A year after the death of his old Black Country mucker John Bonham, 33-year-old Percy found himself at large in a musical realm where Zeppelin had become almost irrelevant. Nor was his voice much more than a shadow of the blood-curdling shriek he'd summoned in that biggest of 70s bands.
On his solo debut, smartly, he never tried to emulate the brute power or sophistication of Zeppelin. The songs, mostly written with guitarist Robbie Blunt (formerly of Bronco and Silverhead), moved pointedly beyond the blues and folk roots of 70s Zep. Recorded at Rockfield in Wales, the sound was already identifiably 80s – a kind of techno-rock in the making, with Jezz Woodroffe's subterranean synths underpinning Blunt's effects-tweaked session-man licks, the whole thing powered by the big drums of a visiting Phil Collins (on all tracks bar Slow Dancer and Like I've Never Been Gone) and Cozy Powell. Plant's vocals had that distanced, reverby quality so popular with producers from that disowned decade.
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Source: BBC Music