This remastered career-spanning career retrospective box set is titled NINE LIVES, to coincide with the nine studio albums released by Robert Plant between the years of 1982-2005. These twenty-three years are twice as long as his tenure in Led Zeppelin, and they help the listener to imagine what could have been had John Bonham lived. One of the most tantalizing morsels of what could have been was found within the PAGE AND PLANT UNLEDDED project, which was part of the MTV Unplugged series, which took place in the mid-1990's. Plant teaming up with Jimmy Page for the album, tour, and the Clarksdale album that followed is the reason why there was a nine year gap in between 1993's FATE OF NATIONS and 2002's DREAMLAND.

Each of these nine solo albums contain either B-Sides, Live tracks, demos, remixes, or songs formerly released in special territories, such as Japan-only bonus tracks. This material had either never been released on CD before, or was difficult and expensive to obtain. The NINE LIVES box, coupled with 2005's SIXTY-SIX TO TIMBUKTU provides a veritiable smorgaborg of bonus material, over which all true long-time fans are certain to salivate.

The remastering was tasefully done, and wasn't the usual fader-pushing into the red-zone, which has a habit of abusing audiophiles and the care and expense that we have taken to assemble high-end multimedia systems right in our homes. I was very pleased to hear this, and none of the resultant over-compressed frequencies fell victim to the usual audio abuse.

THIS IS PLUS NUMBER ONE OF THIS SET!

Next, there are TWENTY-SIX bonus tracks in this complete set, and with the exception of two of the NOW & ZEN live tracks (Billy's Revenge and Tall Cool One), these are all high-quality gems. These include the hard to obtain B-Sides FAR POST and OOMPAH (WATERY BINT), and the wonderful remixes of LITTLE BY LITTLE, TIN PAN VALLEY, THE ENCHANTER, and SHINE IT ALL AROUND. For those of us who simply cannot get enough of the musicians we love and who have become such a deep part of our lives, this box set is well worth the cost, which comes out to about eight dollars a disc.

Then, after the listener has taken in all that aural greatness, there is a two and one-half hour DVD to wade through. It begins with a sixty-two minute documentary/interview with Plant and a melange of his fellow musicians, admirers, and those who have felt his influence in some way.

Finally, there are the twenty full-length music videos that have been shown on the MTV, MTV2, VH1 and VH1 Classic music channels. It is ALL here, including an excerpt of the 1990 Knebworth performance, when Robert Plant received the Nordoff-Robbins Silver Clef Award for his lifelong committment to music AND charity. Perhaps someday THAT entire performance will be released on DVD, as it features Robert's high-energy MANIC NIRVANA band, who were also responsbile for NOW & ZEN and the politically charged FATE OF NATIONS.

I highly recommend this set to anyone who loves and appreciates HIGH QUALITY music, and those who may have missed what all the fuss was about, because of their young age. This NINE LIVES set documents an important sector of music history, featuring the lead singer from the greatest band of all time, Led Zeppelin.

Rating: 100 stars (out of five)

First up let's disclose something up front--if you are not a huge Plant fan and can wait for the individual releases Rhino will be putting this out sometime during March of 2007 with bonus tracks and remastered sound. So Plant's solo albums finally receive the deluxe treatment they deserve. Why get this? Because it has a terrific biography discussing Plant's career after Zep featuring interviews with Tori Amos, Roger Daltrey and many of his contemporaries discussing the highs and lows of his solo career.

If you want the DVD (which may or may not be released individually. My guess is that eventually it probably will be but not for at least a year or two to enhance the value of the box set)then this is the set to get. In addition to the documentary there are also 20 music videos included from throughout Plant's solo career.If you want all of his solo albums at a good price this is the set to get. My only complaint are the way the CDs are housed--they could easily get scratched--other than that this is nicely packaged and designed.

The individual CDs will be released in on March 7, 2006 with the same bonus tracks. While I can't say for certain it will have the liner notes included here usually Rhino will include a portion of them relevent to the album (as they did with the Doobies boxed set among others).

My advice--unless you must have everything NOW wait until they release the albums individually particularly if you don't care for all of Plant's solo albums. Personally even the worst of them for me always had something worthwhile on them. Plant never gave up on searching and trying on different musical styles to continue to grow without losing the essence of who he is. You should be aware, however, that nothing from the Page/Plant albums are included here.

Robert Plant's solo career has been as interesting as one can imagine. From trying on the minimalist arrangements on "The Principle of Moments" to the larger than life production (and sampling of LedZep classics)on "Now and Zen" Plant has been willing to experiment and try out new musical styles without sacrificing the quality songwriting that made his work with LZ so worthwhile. This collection has all of his solo albums with bonus tracks many of which would have been good enough to be included on the original albums. While not every album Plant recorded solo was a gem all of them have moments that are worthwhile (hence the 4 stars).

This is a worthwhile set for fans of Plant's solo career. While not all of his solo albums were great there was enough outstanding material to make this set worthwhile. Unlike most sets this doesn't take highlights from each album and package them with rarities but instead gives you the WHOLE album plus the rarities making it a cut above most anthologies released (which I usually end up selling because I end up picking up the individual releases instead).

I just took delivery of this set. I know the catalogue well so I knew what I was getting. The sound is terrific.

Rhino needs to give their heads a shake in box set design. Every single disc has scuff marks. I was very careful to remove the discs and put plastic sleeves in each slot so the discs will slip in and out easily. The scuffing is a result of the discs being housed in hard cardboard sleeves with no protection. Although this has been brought to their attention time and time again, they continue to do this sort of thing ie 'Where the Action Is: the L.A. Nuggets'

Long an enthusiastic fan of both Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant's solo work (and an owner of all the CDs), this collection is more than worthwhile for a true fan with all Plant's solo work remastered ("Pictures at Eleven" and "The Principle of Moments" particularly benefit), over 20 live/remix/B-side never-before-released goodies (check out "Far Post," a fantastic song I hadn't heard in over 20 years!), the hour-long documentary, and all his videos, including "Big Log," "Calling to You," and "I Believe." This box set of Plant's solo work reaffirms his versatility and musical/lyrical acuity. The photos/liner notes, well-written essay, and beautiful packaging are icing on the cake. If you love Robert Plant, this collection will make you positively giddy. It has made me ecstatic. Best $80 spent in a long, long time.

I'm a huge fan of Robert Plant's career, spanning from his days before Zeppelin through today. He is a fantastic artist and one of the most unique voices in Rock. His career has been long with its ups and its downs, but overall he's had a great run.

When I heard that he was coming out with a box set of every solo album he recorded, I thought that it would just be the albums with a few extras, similar to Led Zeppelin's box set of all their albums, with only 3 extra songs. When I saw everything he put into this, however, I was amazed. Almost every single extra song one could want from him, he put into Nine Lives. From Turnaround (which shows that he actually did try to go back to some Zeppelin before 1985) to Red, White and Blue, he put in anything he didn't release already. Although the extras do not include anything from his greatest hits/extras throughout his career album 66 to Timbuktu (which doesn't shock me), he put in so much else that it doesn't matter.

Everything was digitally remastered, which is great for the early albums, and he added on an extra DVD with all of his music videos, some of which are hard to find. The only problem with such a vast collection is that you get the bad with the good. For example, Shaken n' Stirred was his biggest failure and some of his late 80's/early 90's work isn't fantastic. If you want a good start to Robert's career, get 66 to Timbuktu. If you have become a fan but don't have all the albums, get this.