Walking Into Clarksdale

Pity the aging rock star. All those declarations about sugar mountains and hoping to die before he got old don't leave much room for middle age. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant understood this in 1997 as they began work on Walking Into Clarksdale, the duo's first album-length collaboration on all-new material since Led Zeppelin blew apart in 1980. Despite inevitable comparisons with the music of their youth, their work here (recorded by punk deity Steve Albini) is no embarrassment. Too many of the tracks are frustratingly dry and somber, but the duo find shades of "Kashmir" on the epic "Most High," while Plant croons a beautifully Zeppelinesque chorus on "When the World Was Young." Dancing days are here again. --Steve Appleford