Led Zep legend brings in members of Massive Attack, Portishead

Robert Plant has undergone an incredible career renaissance ever since his 2007 LP with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, sold millions of copies and won a Grammy for Album of the Year.

With his new solo LP, the Led Zeppelin singer certainly sounds energised, bringing in an array of collaborators – from his new band, the Sensational Space Shifters, to members of Massive Attack and Portishead as well as a one-string ritti player from Gambia. “It’s really a celebratory record, but it’s very crunchy and gritty, very West African and very Massive Attack-y,” Plant says. “There’s a lot of bottom end, so it might sound all right at a Jamaican party, but I’m not sure it would sound all right on NPR.”

Plant cut the album – which doesn’t have a title or release date yet – in Bath, England, adhering to a credo he learned from the band that made him famous. “It’s the same anthem that we carried through Led Zeppelin,” he says. “We didn’t repeat anything and kept stimulating ourselves.”

Plant kicked off his world tour on June 5th in Morocco. When it wraps, he hopes to finally focus on his long-awaited second album with Krauss, though the pair haven’t made concrete plans yet. “She keeps saying, ‘Now we’ve got to do it like Daft Punk,’ ” says Plant. “I said, ‘Alison, get a clue. We’ve got great voices. We need to be getting ourselves around some really pretty songs.’ As for Daft Punk, we can go out for dinner with Nile Rodgers, but that’s about it.”