AS the saying goes, you’re only as good your latest work. Robert Plant, unlike some of his contemporaries, always looks to his next album, rather than back to where the Zeppelin flew at its giddy heights. Although he is the first to acknowledge respect for his past catalogue, Plant admits to the constant lure of creating new work, which consistently transforms his sound.

Carry Fire, his eleventh solo offering, is another adventure and exploration into the worlds of music he and his band, The Sensational Space Shifters, respect and admire. It merges the Black Country legend’s roots in rock and delta blues, Bristolian trip-hop, African rhythms, and a newer comer to the Space Shifters, but perhaps not to Plant: English folk music, with the addition of fiddle maestro Seth Lakeman.

The album smoulders with gorgeous dramatic soundscapes of mood, melody and instrumentation, which light the touch-paper of the listener’s imagination.

It’s evident that Plant’s love of the mysticism of these lands still influences his music as much as the misty mountain hop of yesteryear. Opener The May Queen is a celebration of the English springtime, a sibling track to the later Season’s Song.

The title track is a spine tingling, mature outlook on love, and, perhaps, loss, and begs the question: who is he carrying that torch for? Meanwhile, guest vocalist Chrissie Hynde adds her silken tones to duet with Plant to sumptuous effect on Ersel Hickey’s rockabilly masterpiece, Bluebirds Over The Mountain.

However, among all of this ethereal beauty, Plant’s feet remain firmly on terra firma. His commentary on the current global situations ring true in two songs, Bones Of Saints and Carving Up The World Again…A Wall And Not A Fence.

Carry Fire is a must-have for Plant’s fans and a superb introduction to his his solo work for new listeners.

Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters play Sheffield City Hall on December 6.