CD Odyssey Disc 707: Led Zeppelin

Who’s in the mood for even more seventies rock? Yes, for the second review in a row the Odyssey delivers some good old fashioned rock n’ roll. Here's one a year earlier than the last and a goodly amount better.

Disc 707 is…. Houses of the Holy

Artist: Led Zeppelin

Year of Release: 1973

What’s up with the Cover? This cover is very Lovecraftian. I call it “Father’s Day at Devil Reef.” All that cursed gold doesn’t look like such a good deal now does it, mister?

How I Came To Know It: This is a fairly recent purchase for me as I once again try my hand at loving Led Zeppelin – a band I have always admired but never truly fell for.

How It Stacks Up:  I now have six Led Zeppelin albums, and based on samplings of the ones I’m still missing, I think I’m done.  Of the six, “Houses of the Holy” is not the best, but it is good enough to knock “Led Zeppelin III” down a spot and take 5^th.

Rating: 3 stars but almost 4

After the raucous rock n’ roll of “IV,” Led Zeppelin returned to the more folksy approach on “Houses of the Holy” that they’d also tried out on “III”. Although this album meanders around a bit, it holds itself together with songs that feel dreamy even when they punch it up a notch. Listening to it, I felt like I was relaxing in a warm bath – or that I had Deep Ones in my family tree. Hopefully the former.

The album is a tasteful eight songs and 40 minutes, which is something modern records should try to stick to more often. I felt I could really sink my teeth into every track without getting bogged down with too many competing sounds.

I enjoyed the gentle strumming pattern of “The Rain Song” at track two, but the first real standout on the album is “Over the Hills and Far Away.” This song  is the perfect blend of Zeppelin’s whimsical folkadelic sound and their heavier guitar riff driven stuff. Jimmy Page’s solo is restrained and perfectly placed and Robert Plant is able to show his ‘hippy lover’ and ‘screeching rock god’ voice all on a single song. This is a song that demands you air guitar, even if you can’t play it for real.

“D’yer Mak’er” is another winner with a playful fifties vibe to the music, and Plant sounding almost coquettish and “The Ocean” is a Zeppelin classic, with a timeless and unforgettable riff - despite  the fact that I can never remember what the song is called.

Other songs, like “No Quarter” is a meandering prog-fest that had me wishing I could instead listen to the better Zeppelin songs of this ilk that appear on “Presence.” Even the aforementioned “Rain Song” suffers from bloating. This also happens to Deep Ones left out in the sun too long, and judging by the album cover it is a sunny day out at Devil Reef. Really not a good day to catch up with any Children of the Sea you've fathered.

But I digress...

The album’s true crime is “The Crunge” which would be more accurately titled “The Cringe” for what it makes me want to do. It feels like Robert Plant is trying to do a cross between Otis Redding and the reprehensible drunk voice that Anthony Michael Hall affects in “Weird Science.” The song ends with Plant ranting about being unable to find the song’s bridge. Uh…you have to write that, Robert, although no bridge could save this directionless and self-satisfied bit of tripe.

Coming immediately after “IV” I was hopeful that “Houses of the Holy” would hold to the same standard, but that was probably too much to ask. Because of the musicianship, and the powerful brilliance of “Over the Hills and Far Away” and “The Ocean” this album easily clears three stars, but I couldn’t in good conscience give it four.

Best tracks: Over the Hills and Far Away, D’yer Mak’er, The Ocean