Oh, I see what you are saying. I thought that you meant that FON sold just as well as his other album including Now and Zen. You are right that the decline began with Manic Nirvana. (and of course we are talking commercial success, all of them were great albums)

Now and Zen was certified Platinum 3 months after its release. Fate of Nations was only certified Gold 7 months after its release. Now and Zen went on to be certified 3x Platinum. Fate of Nations has only been certified as Gold ( as well as Manic Nirvana) Perhaps maybe over the years the two latter albums have caught up to Now and Zen, but have not been Audited, but since they haven't been audited we can't make a tell. initially though it is clear that at their release times FON and MN did not do as well as NAZ. In fact by record label standards these days they would considered them to have done very poorly. Big Record labels unfortunately expect everything to go multi-platinum to be successful.

Cool, that version of 29 Palms seems to be a hybrid of Lip Sync and live performance. A good compromise in that most shows like that are all Lip Sync.

Just sales

Fate of Nations is a really great album. Then it was remastered and it was like getting a whole new album with all the extra tracks. It was like a complete redo of the experience of buying it the first time. Some places I think it is a little bit over produced like Colours of a Shade. A great song, but a little too slick. The remastered version is almost like Robert's Solo version of Physical Graffiti. It covers a lot of different ground and is about as long. Funny how every one here says its their favorite, yet this album marked a decline in Plant's career. Now and Zen was the Multi-Platinum peak which led to a decline ending in FON which only went Gold. Plant then changed directions and hooked up with Jimmy. (Just like he did after Shaken n' Stirred). FON is one of his best solo albums, I also like Manic Nirvana. I recently went back and was listening to his early solo stuff, and even though it often sounds very dated (unlike Led Zeppelin) The music still rocks. Lock yourself in a closet and you can really jam out to it. I might be a little more reluctant to cruise by the mall with the windows down jamming to Worse than Detroit, but it is a guilty pleasure.