**** Great Balls of Fire *** Good Vibrations ** Maybe Baby * Running on Empty : Plant--Airy, Meandering

** ROBERT PLANT. “Now and Zen.” Es Paranza/Atlantic.

As in the previous three albums of his post-Led Zeppelin career, Plant still doesn’t do a whole lotta rock ‘n’ rolling here. Throughout his solo recordings and tours, the singer has tried to follow that famous Zen maxim of “Be here now,” admirably trying to distance himself from the heavy sound of his famous former group’s glories.

The new effort is much like its predecessors in that it’s meandering, awash in synthesizers and odd rhythmic grooves, and airy--so airy that you plainly hear Plant searching for a key to sing in, in a way you never did when there was so much more noise around him.

So why does “Now and Zen” have “commercial comeback” written all over it? Mainly because of the well-publicized presence (however minimal) of former collaborator Jimmy Page on guitar on two tracks, and because guitars do play a slightly larger part in the overall sound of several songs. Never mind that this listless, mostly lifeless album still sounds virtually nothing like Zeppelin: It’s strictly for the Easily Led.

The lyrics’ concerns alternate between adolescent sexuality and more grown-up, pretentious non sequiturs, but “Zen” isn’t quite a complete write-off. The somber single, “Heaven Knows,” has appropriately slick production and a nifty female chorale to disguise its dearth of substance. On the other end of the scale, “Billy’s Revenge” kicks in with a nice, dirty rockabilly sting that sets it well apart from the lethargic pace established elsewhere. Most impressively, the closing “White, Clean and Neat”--the sole track of any lyrical intrigue--offers an uncharacteristically autobiographical glimpse at a streetwise 5-year-old boy in the ‘50s striving to grow up untarnished by the likes of Pat Boone, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.

The rest of this record seems aimed less at contemporaries than at today’s new generation of white, clean and neat youngsters. If, as an adult, you believe Plant when he sings “There’s a girl lives on my block / She’s driving me mad / I don’t know what to do / ‘Cause I want her so bad” (as opposed to the more likely idea of his owning his entire block), well, he’s got some Swan Song Records stock he’d like to sell you too.