The Singles Jukebox

Appraising grand or appraising bland?

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[6.71]

Mark Sinker: Over at this end, the plain commercial fact of it: nice music made by learned professionals with an immensity of shared experience in several fields! Over at that, the mystico-legendary end: an untranslatable Linear A for the young Plant in a tiny few Knossobilly fragments, from before the great doomed post-Cretan empire of ROCK stole all the artefacts and built over all the palaces and labyrinths.
[8]

John S. Quinn-Puerta: When T-Bone Burnett gets behind an album, he’s not remotely interested in messing around. Though I met the first single with skepticism, his work on The Phosphorescent Blues turned it into Punch Brothers’ magnum opus. He’s arguably partly responsible for a revival of mainstream interest in bluegrass and Americana thanks to the expertly curated soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou? and is, with Marcus Mumford, responsible for the sound of what I think is the unsung diamond of the Coens’ filmography, Inside Llewyn Davis. Plant and Krauss are familiar territory for Burnett, having netted him a Grammy for 2007’s Raising Sand. “Can’t Let Go” is a return to form, brushed drums shuffling along in the background as a beautifully toned upright dictates the flow over tight vocal harmonies that have been honed for decades. Krauss’s alto really shines in the low tones, buoyed by subtle but present rockabilly guitar. Plant’s voice, familiar to anyone who’s ever listened to classic rock radio, echoes some of its legendary power as he drives the melody in the chorus. But the true brilliance of Burnett is in the space the track gives to Plant and Krauss. Rather than surrounding them, the instrumentation lets them breathe, making us miss them when they’re gone.
[8]

Alfred Soto: Raising Sand was the kind of critical and surprise popular success I can respect as an achievement instead of an affirmation of my taste; I settled for tasty goods when “Can’t Let Go” began. The rockabilly chords send mild electric shocks through Plant ‘n’ Krauss: the way they harmonize without one stepping on the other is a demonstration of how craftsmanship is its own reward — should you care to accept the reward. 
[7]

Harlan Talib Ockey: Objectively, I should like this. Krauss and Plant each sound great, the Ventures-esque guitars are clearly meant to appeal to me personally — but the harmonies don’t lock in anywhere near as tightly as on cuts like “Gone Gone Gone”, and it just seems to coast along in a state of perpetual anticlimax, never quite ramping up like it clearly wants to.
[5]

Ian Mathers: Plant’s covered Low before — if he and Krauss insist on sticking with the same sound as the pleasant but pretty darn monochromatic Raising Sand every time they get together, maybe they should cover “Disappearing” or something.
[5]

Claire Biddles: Seems like a backhanded compliment to call something “pleasant”, but that’s just what “Can’t Let Go” is. It has a just-about-satisfying forward momentum, Plant and Krauss’s vocals fit together as sweetly as they always have, there are no new revelations about the material… and that’s OK! A nice song!
[6]

Thomas Inskeep: Sure, the Plant/Krauss pairing (both on 2007’s Raising Sand and this new single) sounds a bit like boilerplate T-Bone Burnett, who produced. And his production is as marvelously understated as ever, working a spooky ’50s country vibe. But what makes this work so well is the surprising vocal chemistry between Plant and Krauss; their voices sound like they’ve been collaborating for decades.
[8]