Dig These Discs :: Robert Plant, Basement Jaxx, El Pintor, Odessa, Kiesza

Led Zeppelin rock god Robert Plant is back with a collection of world music tunes about love and loss. British electronic duo Basement Jaxx finally stops teasing us and delivers their much-awaited seventh album, "Junto." Interpol returns to form with "El Pintor." Santa Rosa native Odessa drops her four-song, self-titled EP this month. And newcomer Kiesza is tearing up the top of the UK charts with her first cut, "Hideaway." Your old favorites stand with the new guard in this week's Dig These Discs.

"lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar" (Robert Plant)

Hold the reins, rednecks! Robert Plant is delving into the world of banjo music with Celtic rock overtones in his new album, the first since his 2005 release, "Mighty ReArranger." The man who defined what a rock god was as lead singer of Led Zeppelin is now making your house as holy as church on Sunday with his easy-listening world music album. Plant shakes up Celtic, Middle Eastern and African styles with blues and country in a hypnotic way. And it's not only banjos at play; he uses electric and acoustic guitar, synthesizers, a one-stringed West African fiddle and a two-stringed kologo, a lute-like instrument. His first cut, "Little Maggie" is a mash-up of an Appalachian folk song with banjo, meshed up with that Celtic beat. And all of it is layered with dance beat electronics. Big thanks to singer Alison Krauss for the 2009 bluegrass album "Raising Sand" that Plant worked on with her. It clearly figures into this outcome. He croons over droning strings in "Rainbow," and ponders love on heaven and earth in "Embrace Another Fall," singing over a somber beat of African hand drums and lute, "your heart could not foresee the tangle I became." Plant's recent split with partner Patty Griffin has him thinking about love and loss, and it comes through in these songs. He captures that "Houses of the Holy" feel with "Pocketful of Golden," provided, that is, that the houses were located somewhere in Brigadoon. He churns out a slowed-down rock tune with "Turn It Up," that features a fantastic bluegrass break. He sings sweet and slow in "A Stolen Kiss" and "Somebody There," with excellent piano and guitar. The djembe hand drums are excellent on "Poor Howard," with fiddle keeping it moving. His most mainstream cut is probably "House of Love," a mellow rock tune about the end of the romance. The electric guitars shred in "Up on the Hollow Hill (Understanding Arthur)." Plant finishes the album strong, with "Arbaden (Maggie's Babby)." A lifetime as a rock god hasn't interfered with Plant's ability to keep things down to earth.
(Nonesuch)

"Junto" Basement Jaxx

After almost two years of teasers, the British electronic duo of Felix Burton and Simon Ratcliffe has officially released their new album, the first in five years. The duo started out spinning at a Brixton party called Basement Jaxx, and kept the name as they gained fame in the '90s. This is the pair's seventh album, and it's as solid a bakers dozen as one can get. The album lays out some excellent dance tracks, rocking a '70s vibe. "Power To The People" is a great liberation anthem, benefiting from a chorus of voices. Their single, "Unicorn" was first released on SoundCloud this May, and it's a pounding, scratching hit making "a good vibration." The song has a great beat and a solid drop. Their video for "Never Say Never" features a twerking robot, and is getting serious media attention, as did their controversial 2001 video for "Where's Your Head At." They go space age in "We Are Not Alone," and mad disco and ready to party in "What's The News." "Wanna take you home with me and put your body to use," sings the female vocalist in the '80s disco-soul cut, "Summer Dem." The band has picked newcomers instead of established guest vocalists. The most well-known is rapper Mykki Blanco on "Buffalo," a cut that kind of sounds like your kid brother making beats in the basement. "Sneakin' Toronto" has a James Brown soul vibe to it, and "Something About You" has a twinkly, girl-band feel. The Spanish guitar intro for "Mermaid of Salinas" kicks off that classical flamenco vibe. They finish with "Love Is At Your Side," a slower, more introspective tune. Unlike their last, brooding album "Zephyr," this is a very upbeat album. You can dance to it. And what could be better than that?
(Atlantic Jaxx Recordings)

"El Pintor" (Interpol)

American rockers Interpol drops their new album "El Pintor," which means "the painter," and is also an anagram of the band's name. Critics are overwhelmingly positive about this "return to form" album, calling it the band's finest in a decade. The lineup features Paul Banks on vocal and guitar (and now on bass, since Carolos Dengler left), Daniel Kessler on guitar and piano and Sam Fogarino on drums and percussion. Their lead single, "All the Rage Back Home" is getting the most applause. It's a fast-moving, toe-tapping tune meant for live performances. Their second cut, "My Desire," has lots of reverb and guitar and a hook that sounds familiar, but never quite gels. Fogarino's drums rock and roll on "Anywhere," as Banks sings about going to the ocean, or anywhere, really. The song stops on a dime. It's followed by the moody, "Same Town, New Story." As Banks sings, "feels the whole world is on my shoulders, feels like the whole world is coming down on me." It's about that heavy. "My Blue Supreme" is a great, brooding song with the lyrics, "Someone that I'm dying to be is cruising my blue Supreme." It's probably the best cut on the album, for my money. "Everything is Wrong" is only partially wrong, in that it's too forgettable. It has a great bass line and starts with a lot of potential, but doesn't stick it. "Breaker 1" has a cool concept, with the intro lyrics, "come back come back breaker 1," and "Tidal Wave" has a steady, rolling beat. "Ancient Ways" has excellent drums, and "Twice As Hard" has great distortions. The songs deal a lot with not-quite-true love, but unfortunately, they're not quite there. Still, this album hits a lot closer to classic Interpol than their last album, giving fans a strand of hope to hang on to.
(Matador Records)

"Odessa EP" (Odessa)

Santa Rosa native Odessa drops her four-song, self-titled EP this month, and is already getting advance critical notice for her efforts, especially her entrancing single, "I Will Be There," produced by Jacquire King. Odessa projects her story through her idyllic guitars and vocals in what the New York Times called, "a plaintive love song with a lilting melody." "If you ever need someone to cry to, if you ever need someone to hold you/ I will be there, standing by your side," she croons. Her soprano is high and clear, and comparisons made to Ellie Goulding are apt. She sings of being a simple woman who knows what she needs in the country-tinged love song, "My Match." An insistent drumbeat fuels the folksy "Hummed Low," which has the fast-moving melody of a song sung in rounds. "Pick up the microphone and tell the world what you know, in color or black and white just make it sound right," she sings in "Gather Round." And this may well be her rallying cry. It only takes one listen to see that this girl has talent, and the fact that she hasn't pushed it into the pro-forma pop singer cookie-cutter right off the bat gives us all hope that there's something deeper behind all of that shimmering vocal beauty. Odessa hits the road on tour with lesbian rocker LP, starting out in Seattle, then hitting San Francisco and Wisconsin before heading to the East Coast.
(Chop Shop/Republic Records)

"Hideaway" (Kiesza)

Canadian singer/songwriter Kiesza drops her debut EP, "Hideaway" and this former Berklee College of Music grad is bringing back to life those transformative dance club tracks. The EP is her passion project to '90s dance music, and at least in the UK, people are loving it. The title track, "Hideaway" hit the top of the UK Singles Chart, becoming the third-fastest selling single of 2014. The tune fuses pop and underground sounds, with that tinge of dance for an uptempo, deep house sound. Keisza's vocal sound is high-pitched and strangled, studded with guttural yawps. She filmed the video for the tune in a single shot of her dancing down Kent Avenue in Brooklyn in high-waisted, stone-washed '90s jeans, with a cadre of backup dancers jumping in. It's truly a blast from the past. She sings, "You're just a hideaway, you're just a feeling/ You let my heart escape, beyond the meaning." It's truly one for the dance clubs. She follows it with some quality cuts, including "Giant in My Heart," singing, "I'm lying to myself that I'm okay, but when I see a photograph I'm still not over you." Her emotive, dramatic tracks are reminiscent of Kristine W. Her slow dance jam "So Deep" is a sexy, from the streets to the sheets stunner. She caps it off with "What Is Love," by Haddaway, a clever, slowed-down cover of the penultimate anthem of the '90s, popularized by that goofy "SNL" skit that later became "A Night at the Roxbury." You just can't get more '90s than that. Keep your peepers open; this won't be the last you see of Kiesza.
(Lokal Legend/UMG)