HOUSES OF THE HOLY

I used to hate this album more than any other Led Zeppelin release but I think it wasn't fair to treat this album like that. After 4 very popular albums Zepps decided to release something more hmm experimental. But that's half true in fact. To be honest we still have to do with old fashined classical hard rock played in bluesy way. The Song Remains The Same is a bit psychedelic hard rock tune but what's funny...that is pretty funny. Having remestered version of this album everything sounds great. Really. As for 1973 album it sounds great. The Rain Song is more psychedelic. It's mostly quiet bluesy piece. Pretty nice. More typical LZ song is next one called Over The Hills And Far Away. Starts with some folk tunes but fast becomes slightly hard rockish and happy tune. Rush took something from it for their Making Memories of Fly By Night album. So I enjoy it;). The Crunge isn't typical Led Zeppelin song. It's flirting with funk. I'm not sure about this. Dancing Days is just some weird hard rock piece. Really interesting. D'yer Mak'er is something totally different from early band's ideas. It's reggae like song. Something definitely worth of attention and good for a summer. I think Sting was very inspired by that when writing Every Breath You Take (yeah lyrics) but musically it's in different tempo. Good experiment from Zepps. No Quarter is probably the mightiest song on Houses Of The Holy. It contains heavy sabbath-like riff and some psychedelic tunes as well. I must say I like it a lot. Unlike other boring early Zeppelin songs this one is truly fetching. Let's call it psychedelic hard rock. The Ocean for the end. Yeah this is typical LZ song. But I like it cos it's very edgy (due to Plant mostly). Houses Of The Holy is different from first 4 albums by the band and probably that's why I'm finding it more interesting. It' deserves 3.5 stars.