HOUSES OF THE HOLY

Though I found it fairly impressive on the first few listens, I personally find that Houses of the Holy is a bit of a "hollow" album - once you get over Led Zeppelin's confident move away from blues-rock (proving that, contrary to the opening track, the songs really haven't remained the same), it's hard to say that the new approach showcased on this album has much to recommend it beyond a bit of superficial flash. Two of the tracks on here are simply terrible - a third-rate attempt at reggae (D'yer Ma'ker) which mangles the reggae sound so horribly that I cringe every time I hear it, and the James Brown "tribute" The Crunge - I say "tribute" because if someone did such a lazy, unimaginative and un-funky parody of my work, I certainly wouldn't feel that they were paying tribute to me.

As for the other songs, aside from the dramatic and foreboding No Quarter - to me, the saving grace of the album - we're dealing with middle-of-the-road classic rock from a band which had formerly defined the cutting edge. The Rain Song, in particular, suggests to me that Led Zeppelin were out of ideas at this point: oh look, it's a gentle ballad awash with Mellotron. That totally hadn't got old by 1972. Snore.