#98...

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Well. What can be said about "the Led" that hasn't already been said thousands of times? Best Rock and Roll band of All Time? Probably. And even if it's not true, it's been said enough so that any 21st Century boy (or girl) who even utters the words, "Who are Led Zeppelin?" gets a slap on the wrists and their heads clamped into a battered pair of Sennheisers with Led Zeppelin IV on repeat, until they know every intonation of the guitar solo from "Stairway to Heaven".

But, I digress. We speak today of Physical Graffiti. And, although not the best album the band released - we're only at #98, for God's sake, and I'm even surprised it's been put so low - it is indeed an album so full of ideas, experimentation and downright indulgence that it's hard not to leave on repeat itself, until you're familiar with every noise Jimmy Page got out of that sexy axe of his. Especially on "The Rover", where you can practically taste the guitar solo. Or should that be solos?

But my highlight, I feel is "In The Light". With it's 90-second build-up - and middle break of similar musical calibre - it is unlike anything I've really heard them do before. There's the subsequent breakdown into familiarity though, as Plant's sustained vocal breaks the surface and the rest of the foursome follow suit. Page's layered delay solos that begin in the middle of the album's third epic just force you to go back and listen to it all again. Definitely a song I can go back too umpteen times and just take apart piece by piece. And I haven't even mentioned that well-known behemoth "Kashmir", partly because it speaks for itself. All eight minutes and twenty-four seconds of itself.

So. Although it isn't their best - because it isn't - there's more than enough musical talent and change in style here to showcase everything fantastic about Led Zeppelin.

Key Tracks: "In The Light"; "Kashmir"; "The Rover"; "In My Time of Dying"

Better to Stretch Out Than to Leave Off: Originally intended to just be an single album, the band had put so much into the first eight recorded tracks that even they were longer than the required 40 or so minutes. So they took the opportunity to whack out some tunes that otherwise wouldn't have made it. Strangely enough though, it still feels like it runs through in one 'smooth variation'.