ROBERT PLANT

Carry Fire

Nonesuch/Warner Bros.

One of the weirder chapters in rock history happened in 2014. That’s when Led Zeppelin won a Grammy for best rock album for a seven-year-old concert recording while the band’s former frontman Robert Plant somehow didn’t even scrounge up a nomination for one of the best albums of the year. Three years later, let’s hope the future doesn’t again get overshadowed by the past.

The 11-track Carry Fire finds Plant backed by his talented band, the Sensational Space Shifters, and thrillingly exploring the same fascinating terrain of rootsy folk and achy blues.

If 2014’s lullaby and ... The Ceaseless Roar seemed soaked in heartbreak, the new album has Plant in a happier place and looking to the horizon, perhaps becoming more political.

New World is a bitter look at the way we treat immigrants, Carving Up the World Again mocks border walls and Bones of a Saint coolly dispatches religious fervour. He pushes deeper than ever into Middle Eastern sounds with the outstanding oud-filled title track, an exhilarating multicultural triumph.

Of course, no one does love like Plant — mature, earthy and world-weary. Here, he seems to have found a new spark — “Lay down in sweet surrender/ Your love so warm and tender,” he sings on May Queen.

As with his last album, there are coy nods to his past, like the title of May Queen, which Led Zeppelin fans will instantly recognize from Stairway to Heaven. He sings about “dancing days” here, which is also the title of a song on 1973’s Houses of the Holy.

There’s an intimacy to Plant’s weathered voice throughout, so intimate that it sometimes feels as if we’re intruding on a personal moment. He’s also using more modern technology to create an album that seamlessly mixes cello, bendir and Moog synthesizer, backed by the accomplished musicians John Baggott, Justin Adams, Billy Fuller, Dave Smith and Liam (Skin) Tyson.

If anyone still needs proof of the skills on offer here, look no further than the cover of Ersel Hickey’s Bluebirds Over the Mountain, a rockabilly ditty from the ’50s. Plant and his band — joined by Chrissie Hynde — give it a dark synth texture and menacing guitar.

There are few undisputed rock stars this accomplished still taking musical risks. Plant’s songwriting remains a class above, even as he nears 70. “Out here the fire’s still burning/ So long into my night,” he sings. Long may it burn.