LED ZEPPELIN II

Led Zeppelin may always be one of the most crowd pleasing hard rock bands ever, and Led Zeppelin II may just be their most crowd pleasing album. Hugely influential, this album is simple, raw, riffing, rock-n-roll elegance-- plus it has more Robert Plant "baby, baby, babies" than just about any other album in their catalog.

The iconic songs of this album-- "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker", "Ramble On", are heavy and saturated with fuzzy blues that will make anyone who likes anything about rock music groove. The folksy ballads add a nice touch, but the thing most will remember from Zep II is the energy and style the band pushed to the forefront with this album. To me, Zeppelin tunes are so ubiquitous that they invariably drift into the background; there isn't much here to demand one's attention beyond the occasional bit of sonic experimentation. These songs are great-- they wouldn't be a part of our rock-n-roll heritage if they weren't-- but there's only so much artistic merit one can squeeze from Robert Plant's wails and Jimmy Page's riffing.

A great album to play at a party or scream along to when on the highway, and while unforgettable it is immediately ignorable.

Songwriting: 2 Instrumental Performances: 3 Lyrics/Vocals: 3 Style/Emotion/Replay: 4