217. IV - Led Zeppelin

Led Zep have always been a band that I've felt I should enjoy more than I have. Whilst a few songs stand up with the best, Achilles' Last Stand being one, I've just found them less than the sum of their impressive parts. Page is a great guitarist, and Bonham a outstanding drummer. Robert Plant's voice can be irritating at times, but his recent album with Alison Krauss sounds so good that it can't be the whole story. It may be that I learned to enjoy 70s rock moving back from contemporary times, and so I don't understand the way that the band's sound grew from old blues numbers.

Led Zeppelin IV, as I shall call it, is technically untitled, and the sleeve features no mention of the band's name, members or song titles. It was a bold strategy upon release in 1971, but the cover image is so famous that it's a safe bet to say that the gamble paid off. The painting was purchased by Plant in an antique shop in Reading, and then placed on the wall of a run-down house that was about to be demolished for the final cover photo. It is the third highest selling album of all time in the US, with over 23 million copies sold in that country alone.

Black Dog kicks things off with a ripping blues-y riff and some staccato percussion. The stop-start structure of the song makes me think of Oh Well by Fleetwood Mac, which sounds remarkably similar. The Fleetwood Mac track was released two years before this album, and has even more swagger about it. Jimmy Page and John Bonham vie for dominance, and it is no doubt due to the fact that Page produced the record that he arguably wins it. Rock And Roll follows in an even more helter-skelter manner, with driving bass and keys punctuating Plant's wails and moans. It's a song that would probably work better live, but carries enough energy about it to work in the studio. The Battle for Evermore is a slightly budget Stairway to Heaven, all folklore and medieval sounding instrumentation, but without the good bit at the end. Stairway to Heaven, in contrast, is a much better Battle for Evermore. Whilst the lyrics are slightly nonsense, they create an evocative set of images, bustling hedgerows and all. It is when the drums kick in that the song really comes into its own, with the sharp snare and cymbals helping it to gather momentum. Page's guitar solo, so oft-parodied, is great, as are Plant's vocals after the final chorus, all wailing and emotion. It's a song that stands up there with the very best, and people who claim that they're not that keen should probably give it another listen. Misty Mountain Hop is ok, but just doesn't grab me - I just find it all a bit syncopated. If I really knew what that word meant, I may even find it very syncopated. Four Sticks is powerfully rhythmic, showcasing John Bonham at his very best, but doesn't quite do enough with its foundations for me. Going to California is a pleasant enough folk song, but it's a bit on the fey side, and seems to stick out a bit against the density of sound on the rest of the album, which is perhaps the point of it. When the Levee Breaks was the (re)discovery of this particular set of listens - it is a great track, that builds from that funky opening into a veritable flood of musical brutality. A cover of a 1927 blues song by the husband and wife pair Memphis Minnie, the riff is almost Kashmir good, and there's a hypnotic use of a harmonica too, complete with backward echo recording technique. It's a great closer to the album, sending it out on a high.

I've found this album really hard to judge, and put a number on. I know that it is seminal and important, and was familiar with it before this week. At the same time, I don't love it, and listening to it for a week has not changed my views on Led Zeppelin. I have enjoyed it slightly more than I had feared I would, but it hasn't been revelatory either. The good songs are incredible, primarily Stairway and Levee, but there is also quite a bit of meh for an album of eight tracks.

Chloe's rating: 7

Chloe's favourite track: 8. When the Levee Breaks

Olly's rating: 7

Olly's favourite track: 4. Stairway to Heaven

Our album for next week is 503. Pornography by the Cure. Also a British band, made up of eight tracks and 43 minutes long - I think that's probably where the similarities end.