Adam Plant – “Damned” – an engaging and gripping performance!

A quick run through Adam Plant’s back catalog is enough to understand that this is extremely unconventional music. Plant does everything that isn’t supposed to happen. He fuses together genres and styles that typically do not blend together. He uses flamboyant vocal deliveries, and throws in spoken word interludes and recorded conversations, in some his songs to add more meaning and nuance to the narratives. Often satirical and comedic, his challenging creations are amazingly inventive and experimental, classifying Plant as a left-field musical genius, with no care for conventions and boundaries in his work. Being a genius however, requires throwing a spanner in the works from time to time, and doing exactly the opposite of what fans may expect from you.

Recorded in Brisbane, Italy, and France, Adam Plant’s latest single, “Damned” is exactly that moment in time. Featuring Plant himself on vocals and rhythm guitar, Hoodoo Blonde on lead guitar, Nicola D’adamo on Drums, and Andrea Di Fiore on Bass, the track steps right into the middle of conventional rock with an eye on commercial accessibility.

Gone is the eccentric vocal edge, the extravagant musical arrangements, and the outrageous sonic interludes. In its place, a straight and dirty rock rhythm, a gritty melody and a ton of ear warming catchiness.

All in all Adam Plant and his band do an excellent job instrumentally, as they lean on the best core influences from the rock related genres in the process. “Damned” has a very sleazy, psychedelic, and raw feel.

Whether you believe that Plant is a genius and a visionary when he is entangled inside his natural oeuvre, there is no doubt that even when he plays by the rules, as he does on “Damned”, he still manages to shine brightly.

Stripped of the avant-garde excesses, mean ass attitude and sheer outright zaniness that characterizes a lot of Adam Plant’s music, there is a sheen of accessibility to “Damned”, which is just as engaging, for a whole set of different reasons, naturally.

From whichever side of rock you are coming from, this is an easy song to embrace. It is a maelstrom of rock n’ roll groove, with mutating guitars, thumping drums and the untamed grit of Adam Plant’s voice leading the charge.

Adam Plant has shifted. Whether this is a temporary or more enduring shift, is not clear just yet, but he is there, working within the confines of the commercial package. With his already perfected rock grooves weaving in and out of “Damned”.

Plant has begun the drive towards becoming something incredibly accessible, while still maintaining a firm grip on his creative integrity. Lesser artists would have become lost, outside of their comfort zones. Instead, this transformation seems to have been easy for Adam Plant.

On “Damned”, Adam Plant invites listeners back into his mindset where a very different landscape demands exploration. It is easy to get lost in this song with Plant’s engaging and gripping performance, while the band behind him, make sure the momentum is never lost. Adam Plant has an aura and spark that transcends the track.