HOUSES OF THE HOLY

After the success of LZ4 or Zoso, Led Zeppelin had a lot of pressure on their shoulders to create a follow up. While I rated this album a three, I would give it a 3.5 rating. While Houses of the Holy features some of the group's most outstanding work, it also contains some mediocre tracks that really drag the entire album, unlike LZ4 where every single track was outstanding.

The album opens up with The Song Remains the Same, which shows the new style Zep is going to in rock; removing the blues influence and using Jimmy Page's power as a studio worker to create overdubbed guitar tracks. The song itself is fantastic and mostly instrumental. The song then leads into The Rain Song, a beautiful song filled with beautiful acoustic guitar and majestic mellotron. The next song, Over the Hills and Far Away, continues the folk rock style that Led Zeppelin employs, featuring a continuous acoustic guitar riff and Lord of the Rings influenced lyrics. Three fantastic songs in a row. This is going to be another 5 star album right?

The next song on the track is the Cringe... sorry, the Crunge. The song is highly funk influence and shows Zep's willingness to explore other genres. Actually, the musical part of the song is not that bad. It is Robert Plant's vocals and lyrics that turn it unbelievably annoying. This is also what happened with The Song Remains the Same, except that song actually had fantastic guitar work. It is a painful three-minutes to listen to. The next song, Dancing Days, seems like a masterpiece compared to the Crunge. While it is not the best song out there, it is an interesting little song containing some interesting guitar work. While entertaining, it is ultimately forgettable. The next song, D'yer Maker, is a cutesy little reggae influenced song that entertained radio audiences but made Zep fans roll their eyes.

The terrible middle portion is redeemed by the next song, No Quarter. This song shows that John Paul Jones was not only a great bass player, but a fantastic piano and mellotron player as well. The song is very avant-garde for Zep. Mellotron, piano solos, great guitar riffs, Bonzo's pounding drums and Robert Plant's haunting vocals make this into a under appreciated classic. The album closes with The Ocean, a rocker credited to all the fans Robert Plant sings to in concerts. While not up there with Immigrant Song or Rock and Roll, it is still a great rocker in its own right.

SImply put, this album is a mixed bag. It features fantastic songs (The Rain Song and No Quarter are the reason this group is on Progarchives), but also has some incredibly bad and/or mediocre songs on the album. Listening to only five of the eight songs on the album, I give this album three stars.