REMASTERS

The music contained herein is worth 5 stars, at least! But this compliation is only worth 4, though it's not the compilers' fault. Led Zep's best songs were almost always 5+ mins in duration, so it must have been a bit of a headache trying to fit them all on two discs. The first disc is almost flawless, not just in its song selection, but also the sequencing. I would've replaced 'Ramble On' (with it's quaintly embarrassing references to Gollum') with 'Thank You' or 'What Is And What Should Never Be', and 'Misty Mountain Hop' with 'When The Levee Breaks' (surely one of the greatest straight-up drum performances ever put on vinyl). The second disc unfortunately has one of only three Led Zep songs I find hard to listen two (not a bad strike rate for a bad with 50+ songs!), and that's 'D'Yer Mak'er', a cod-reggae tune as groan-inducing as the pun that inspired it's title. 'Ove the Hills and Far Away' from the same album would've been a better choice. The only other main problem is that there is simply not enough room to include all the best songs from Led Zep's greatest achievement 'Physical Graffiti'- no 'Custard Pie', 'The Rover', 'Nite Flight', 'In The Light', 'In My Time Of Dying', etc... My advice to the neophyte Led Zep fan is to get this first (it was my intro to the band two, and I since went on to buy the four-disc box set, the suplimentary two-disc collection, the DVD, the Page & Plant albums and a Plant solo collection, so the complirer's must have done something right!) Next up, get 'Physcal Graffiti', as there's minimal overlap. For hard-core prog fans who aren't convinced this band belong on this site, you need (and that's NEED in bold and italics) to dowload: 'Dazed & Confused', 'Achilles Last Stand', 'In The Light', and 'Carousalambra'. Ah, who'm I kidding! Everything led Zep did needs to be heard. They're one of those classic rock bands like Pink Floyd who have no trouble aquiring a new generation of fans every few years. This collection explains why.