PRESENCE

Somehow I deleted my review of this so here goes again....... Presence is one of Led Zeppelin's later albums, and features Robert Plant singing (really well, I must say) from a wheelchair as he was recovering from an automobile accident. The kick-off track 'Achilles Last Stand' is a storming composition of driving power and crunching 'chugg-chugga-chugg' rhythms. Killer riffs around every corner !! John Paul Jones' bass is crisp and invigorating, the drumming from John Bonham is solid as ever, and Jimmy Page tears it up his fretboard as usual. The overall production is a bit 'dry' and the album has a certain rawness to it. The other key track off this album is the extended slow blues number 'Tea For One'. No other band performs a slow-blues with as much magic as Zepp. For these 2 pieces alone, the album is worth tracking down, unfortunately, the songs in between are average fare hard-rock with little to excite most Proggers. Still worth a fair 3 stars.