Robert Plant's eleventh studio album, Carry Fire, is due out on Nonesuch / Warner Bros. Records next Friday, October 13. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full as an NPR First Listen.

Produced by Plant in the west of England and Wales, Carry Fire melds unusual rhythms with naturalism. As with his 2014 album, lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar, the album features his band The Sensational Space Shifters. They are also joined here by special guests, including Chrissie Hynde.

The new album is "transfixing," exclaims NPR's Tom Moon. "It is a triumph of calibration, the work of a mature artist who understands how hard to swing and when to throttle back. It brings Plant's heaven-bound sound to a human scale, an approachable place."

Moon goes on to say of the "riveting" new album: "Through careful arrangements and a downright beautiful vocal capture, Plant and his collaborators create music that overflows with irrepressible life force ... Carry Fire is rivetingly intimate: After all those years of trekking the world in private jets, performing at peak volume for thousands, Plant has built an encore career that thrives on tenderness and nuance while somehow retaining his burning inner intensity. Within this place of existential whispers and delicate textures are lessons about life and love and heeding the call of creative exploration rather than the empty lure of dollars."

Read more and hear the album at npr.org/firstlisten.

To reserve a copy of Carry Fire, head to iTunes or the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl pre-orders include an exclusive print, an instant download of the album tracks "The May Queen," "Bones of Saints," and "Bluebirds Over the Mountain," and a download of the complete album on release day.