ENCOMIUM - A TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN

During the mid-nineties, the major labels all had the idea of making tribute albums of popular artists. Some were okay, some were badly done. This one is mostly tolerable, with a few good tracks and a few bad ones.

First, other than Tori Amos and Robert Plant himself (Is it bad form to record a song for your own tribute album?), none of these bands are remotely progressive. The majority would probably fall into the wide category of alternative rock. And then there's Duran Duran.

Most of the songs on this collection stay fairly close to the original Led Zep recordings. And groups like 4 Non Blondes, with a female vocalist, can sound eerily like the old Robert Plant (who himself sound more like the tired, recent Robert Plant). Blind Melon does a good job on Out On The Tiles, even though they changed the verse section.

Sheryl Crow makes D'yer Maker even more poppy. And Henry Rollins shouts out Four Sticks like it's another version of TV Party. The biggest stinker on the album is Custard Pie performed by Helmet with David Yow. Yow is right. The guy is horrible. I know it a punk thing to do, but he comes across as a mentally challenged individual (to be politically correct), and just ruins the song.

So with nothing really making this worthwhile, the best I can give it is two stars.

Being a huge Zeppelin fan, I approached this collection hesitantly, not knowing what to expect. But also being a fan of some of these bands, I had to give it a try, mostly for curiosity sake. In my mind, I approached the album with the attitude that very few Zep songs could be improved upon, so I listened to each track and rated it based on whether it was just a safe copy of the original, if the artist put their own stamp on it and still respected the material, or if they just slaughtered the track completely. Here is what I came up with on a track-by-track basis:

1) Misty Mountain Hop - 4 Non-Blondes - Decent cover. Nothing new and daring, yet nothing disgraceful either. This is an inbetween-er.

2) Hey, Hey What Can I Do - Hootie and the Blowfish - Darius takes this song and makes it his own....boring, bland and uninteresting, just like all of his other songs. If this was one of Hootie's original songs, it would not stand out, just like all of his other songs....they all sound the same. Good thing he went country because that genre is full of the same type of music, it all sounds the same. Bad.

3) D'yer Maker - Sheryl Crow - I expected this one to be much better because I do have some respect for Sheryl Crow. It's true what all the other reviewers say about her cover here, that she made it pop-py. This is the worst track in my opinion. This is the wrong way to do a Led Zeppelin cover. I find this cover very irritating especially when she sings "no-no". Bad.

4) Dancing Days - Stone Temple Pilots - As a huge contrast from the previous track, STP demonstrates the right way to cover Led Zeppelin. They give it their own stamp, respect the material and don't even try to make it their own song. Perfect. Good Track.

5) Tangerine - Big Head Todd and the Monsters - One of my favorite bands cover one of my favorite songs. This band is completely under-rated and I was plesantly surprised at how well they carry of one of LZ's most difficult songs. Probably my favorite track here. Good Track!

6) Thank You - Duran Duran - This one is the biggest surprise on the album. I have to say that I loved their "Rio" album, but most of their other albums where not favorites of mine. I expected this cover to be a complete failure since their sound is not at all like LZ's sound. But, My God, they actually pull it off and do it well. Good.

7) Out on the Tiles - Blind Melon - I was looking forward to this one because I always compared Blind Melon to Led Zeppelin and found a lot of similarities in their music. But the singing is 2nd rate and the instrumentals are nothing spectacular either. In-between.

8) Good Times, Bad Times - Cracker - I was expecting this one to also be another good one and this time I was not disappointed. Cracker does the cover justice, respects the music and puts their own stamp on it. Nothing really special happens because they stay true to the source, but it sounds really good to me. Good.

9) Custard Pie - David How, Helmet - The instrumentals were great, the singing, however, is a joke. It ruins the cover completely. It's almost like the singer knew how bad he was so he lampoons himself in the song. Bad.

10) Four Sticks - Rollins Band - I ended up liking this cover. Rollins repects the material and Henry Rollins voice, while it keeps with his own style, does not go way over the edge like How did on the previous track. The instrumentals are dirty, but that's okay on this song. It actually gives it the atmosphere that the song needs. It does get a little old after a while though. In-Between.

11) Going to California - Never the Bride - Instead of acoustic guitar, they use a piano as the main instrument and it works very well. The vocals are decent throughout most of the song until they try to add a little emotion which almost works but also almost ruins the cover. But it is still decent. In- between.

12) Down by the Seaside - Robert Plant and Tori Amos - Plant's voice has mellowed over the years, so he adjusts the song to match his voice here. The song is also mellowed down for Tori's beautiful piano and voice. This almost works, but Plant's voice tends to get a little annoying in some spots and in other's it holds up well. Tori's contributions are definately respectable up until almost the end where she becomes a little too repetitive and starts to howl a little too much. In- Between.

So overall, there are a few worthy covers here. Is it enough to hunt this album down? Probably not, but I wouldn't write off the good covers either. There are some covers here that are definately worth downloading whether you are a LZ fan or not. Otherwise, if you are a fan of any of the artists here, you may also want to check out these tracks.

Encomium - A Tribute to Led Zeppelin is an OK tribute album, but prog? No. Zeppelin did do a number of songs that I would consider prog, but they are not here on this album. But I do think that this is a decent album.

The best cuts on here are Out On the Tiles, Dancing Days, Hey Hey What Can I Do, and Good Times Bad Times. My favorite version is the Stone Temple Pilot's version of Dancing Days, as it is true to the song, yet they made it their own.

However, I cannot recommend this to someone who is only interested in progressive rock music. But if you like Zeppelin, and you like tributes, it will do the trick. If not - don't.

Oh finally this tribute is featured here. It's quite surprising to me actually that a band as strong and as solid as Led Zeppelin being tributed by younger bands with some pop backgrounds like Duran Duran for example. But as I was so curious about this then I purchased the cassette version of this one and not to my surprise that I was not impressed at all with this tribute album. I don't think any of track played here is better than the original version. There are two factors that make it hard to tribute Led Zeppelin: first is the musicianships of John Bonham as well as Jimmy Page that really characterized the Led Zeppelin sound plus the high octave vocal line of Robert Plant. It's really tough to emulate. Second, is the overall Led Zeppelin sound that really hard to emulate. It's true that I cannot get any feel that makes me impressed with this tribute. Maybe, the way to enjoy this tribute is by redefining the expectation: to enjoy it as it is and unlearn the original sound of Led Zeppelin. This is to say that Misty Mountain Hop should not be compared with the original one that has dynamic groove and so captivating. You may then try to enjoy Thank You which might not quite disappoint you that much ...may be ....

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

When I saw here that there was a very-90s tribute album to the late, great Led Zeppelin, I just had to hear it and know. I almost didn't care if it was good or bad--it seems here, thus far, the consensus is mixed (there is no consensus). This is no slight of hand on Atlantic's part by compiling these cover songs by these very disparate and mostly quite famous bands/artists. I simply say, "Well, played". For those who somehow did not grow up, as I did, with the pleasure of spinning (and flipping) these original vinyl records by Zep, the circular paper label on the disc always read "ATLANTIC" over their classic green and orange. I'll get into the details henceforth, but brought together are artists from (mostly) Alternative/College Radio Rock (4 Non Blondes, Hootie & The Blowfish, Sheryl Crow, STP and Blind Melon) to other such poppy staples of the time (Duran Duran and Tori Amos, if I may separate them) to brutal, then-watershed fusion groups (Helmet, David Yow of the Jesus Lizard, and Rollins Band). Awesome in and of itself that Tori Amos's feature, the final track, is a duet with Led Zeppelin's own frontman, Robert Plant.

The 4 Non Blondes [Oops! the bassist is platinum-headed...] makes an immediate call-back to another off the same album, the intro to "Black Dog", on their cover of "Misty Mountain Hop". And honestly, I think they pretty much crushed this song. There are so many things that are expectedly over the top (vocally), and yet... we're talkin' about something Robert Plant originally did here... haha. The official music video for this version is available on YouTube and it's very worth checking out.

Next, Hootie & The Blowfish are doin' it expectedly Country on "Hey Hey What Can I Do", the B-side to "Immigrant Song" which I have never heard before. Thought I'd know it. It's... fine. Kinda not fine haha.

Next from half-Country, we have "D'yer Mak'er" as performed by Sheryl Crow, who I admittedly have a soft spot for for some of her hits back when. This is pretty straight-ahead and true to it, were it not basically an 'unplugged' version. Not sure it really offers up anything new, though that shouldn't surprise anyone.

Next, we have the less-surprisingly half-unplugged "Dancing Days" by a band I definitely do like, Stone Temple Pilots, this cover since appearing on their 2019 remastered 'Super Deluxe' Purple (originally 1994). I think they sound great, but I'm sure we're going to run into the problem of 'new' and interesting throughout this, aren't we?

From the biggest songs in their discography, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, a band I'm really ignorant of, does a soft Alt thing. But also... bluesy Southern Rock? Anyway, first taste of their stuff brought Gin Blossoms to mind... Take that as you will, but "Tangerine" seems like a logical match, really, on paper and, yes, in practice. Lotta country-adjacent stuff on this album, which I find more surprising than I should feel. Certainly Led Zeppelin's historied adjacency to folk traditions in the least should clue me in that this all makes some sense.

I would think most famous for their early-80s Synth-Pop/New Wave output and hits like "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Rio" and "Girls on Film", Duran Duran actually (and not really surprisingly) very nicely covers the beautiful "Thank You" (off my favorite Zeppelin album, Led Zeppelin II, 1969). What's not surprising is that this would have come out/been recorded just after their superhit from the early '90s, "Ordinary World", which is itself a beautiful and lush song.

Blind Melon heads off most confidently and strong on their cover of "Out on the Tiles", a sure highlight from Led Zeppelin III. It's such a great cover, honestly. Super heavy, true to the original, and yet not uncharacteristic of the post-Grunge world in which we found ourselves when this album was released. A world in which bands like Blind Melon thrived.

Cracker, to those whose name-recognition software is on the fritz as mine was, are known for their superhit "Low", but... I don't know what else. Ya know the one: "A million miles, a million miles / I'll be with you girl / Like being low / Hey, hey, hey like being stoned", etc. You know it. They cover here the delicious proto-Metal opener from Led Zeppelin's debut, "Good Times Bad Times". Instrumentally, it's good, not necessarily fresh, and unfortunately the vocals are lackluster. Another that doesn't offer much 'new'... Decent rehashing, at best.

Next is one I was quite excited for, "Custard Pie" performed by Helmet (In The Meantime is honestly one of my favorite albums, a must-hear for fans of Alt Metal) and Jesus Lizard frontman David Yow. I'm far less familiar with the latter, but he's a weirdly good match. He has an interesting, nearly atonal vocal delivery. Helmet on the other hand is just a phenomenal collective of musicians (I saw them live in 2014 for a birthday of mine and it was seriously one of the best shows I've seen). Good stuff; vocally an acquired taste.

Another favorite, for their one album alone, The End of Silence (1992), Rollins Band (fronted by Henry of the same surname, of course) are the other Alt Metal representatives. They cover the classic "Four Sticks" and I think they offer a lot on this one, not that I'm surprised. These guys can play, and if you're not familiar with their early-90s output, highly recommended. Bluesy, at times jazzy, always brutal, and always well done.

I guess to be expected, but the female-led Never The Bride is one I've never heard a lick from (until just before this). Is this what the kids call 'Adult Contemporary'? hahaha! Actually some wild classical guitar soloing on their song "Web of a Stranger" from a 2019 album. Here, they perform the lovely "Going to California", here transmuted into a piano ballad. This lady sounds like... she could easily front a Hair Metal band, so... Hmmm. Regardless, pretty good.

Finally, we have the sort of cowboy "Down by the Seaside" as performed by Robert Plant and Tori Amos. I think, once again, on paper and (mostly) in practice, they're a natural fit. The verse sections feature lead vox from Robert with a sort of oddly placed call-and-response from Tori. Unsurprisingly, piano-led. The drums are very of the time, in the best of ways. Unplugged-ready! A lot easier on the ears is Tori's lead vocals in the middle section. I'm quite a fan of her album Under the Pink from 1994. Oft minimal but occasionally complex. Regardless, that album has a lotta earworms.

Wow... this was a long review haha. Surprised to be giving it a 3, given how it started off... i.e. a strong enough ending, for sure.