Robert Plant and the Sensational Shape Shifters appeared on BBC’s Later … With Jools Holland last night, and performed two songs from Plant's new album, Carry Fire. to  You can watch “New World” and “Bones of Saints” at the BBC's website.

Announcing the LP in August, the former Led Zeppelin singer said that his main focus this time around was “intention." “I respect and relish my past works, but each time I feel the incentive to create new work, I must mix old with new," he said. "Consequently, the whole impetus of the band has moved on its axis somewhat – the new sound and different space giving way to exciting and dramatic landscapes of mood, melody and instrumentation.”

“I look for a theme from all the stuff I’d written down and then I just roll on," he noted in a BBC interview. "I’ve been very fortunate. I was in the greatest cross-sectional band ever. Not for melody, but for power and energy and inventivity – a very good word.”

Citing the love songs of Roy Orbison as a particular influence, Plant described himself as a “failed romantic.” “I’m no longer a teenager, but I’m aware as time goes on, if you listen to singing about love, it’s usually broken love," he explained "It’s seldom you extol  the virtues of a life in successful love. Show me a happy writer, I’ll show you a rubbish writer! I see things going on around me. I see the rub of love, the energies, the electricity. I’m not giving up – I have a season ticket.”

Carry Fire follows 2014’s Lullaby and … the Ceaseless Roar and features Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders on a cover of “Bluebirds Over the Mountain.” Plant launches a sold-out U.K. tour on Nov. 16, which runs until Dec. 12, to be followed by North American dates beginning on Feb. 9 and ending on Mar. 2.

More From US 103.1 FM