Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin IV [conventional title] by Led Zeppelin (1971) In 1982, eleven years after this album’s release, a 17-year-old ‘big man on campus’ named Benny walked into his private-school math class singing: “Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove”. His stern, no-nonsense Intermediate Algebra teacher (me) turned from writing the day’s assignment on the blackboard to shoot Benny a disapproving glare. Benny sheepishly clammed up. But as I turned back to the blackboard to finish, I sang softly: “Ah, ah, child, way you shake that thing Gonna make you burn, gonna make you sting” As I put down the chalk and turned again toward the class, smile met smile as Benny and I shared a trans-generational moment of awareness of the power of Led Zeppelin IV. Benny ended the semester with a surprisingly good ‘A-‘ in math. It would have been a ‘B+’, but his anachronistic love for Led Zeppelin tilted the scales in a positive direction, and I don’t regret it one bit. There was a time when I considered Led Zeppelin IV to be the greatest album ever, and I’m not sure that that time is past. Young people today should do themselves a favor and develop such a strong a familiarity with this record that they will be able to recognize each track from its opening strains, like Beethoven’s Symphony #5 or Bach’s Toccata and Fugue. It’s that good. Few albums have ever had both the variety and cohesiveness of Led Zeppelin IV. Each listen is an immersive experience, striding through an aural gallery of head-banging rock, moan-inducing blues, culture-resonating folk, and a time-transcending mysticism that carries perennial fascination. And tying all these disparate features together is a musical synthesis of sounds of today (the ‘now’) and images of the misty past (the ‘then’—see below). As musicians, each of the six performers (including Sandy Denny, ethereal backing vocal on “The Battle of Evermore” and Ian Stewart, piano on “Rock and Roll”) executes at peak virtuosity. The four members of Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page [guitar], Robert Plant [lead vocals], John Bonham [drums], and John Paul Jones [bass & keyboards]) are each individually on lists of the ‘greatest of all time’ in their respective categories of performance. Yet no rock group (other than The Beatles) ever played better together. From the electro-windup intro on the opening track “Black Dog”, the listener knows he/she is in for a thrill and a treat, in that order. Robert Plant’s inimitably powerful yet soulful a cappella lead vocal storms onto the scene, grabbing the ears. Then, struggling to discern the meter, the listener immediately discovers the groove, even though it seems that John Bonham’s ingenious rhythmic composition is performing a different song altogether, ignoring the standard gum-chewing backbeat of early rock. But everything is in miraculous sync, as Page and Jones muscle on, all pausing to let Plant do his thing before kicking back in with pure power rock. We teenagers listening to this in 1971 had never heard anything like this before, because there never was anything like this before. Then, without letting up, we hear the smashing rock & roll of “Rock & Roll”, where Bonham reminds us that the backbeat still lives, and Page cooks like never before with wild guitar solo work. Page later said the track was written and recorded in fifteen minutes. I would have paid serious money to sit in a room with Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry to watch them hear this track for the first time. And by the way, the most convincing cover of this song was done by Heart (the closing track of Greatest Hits/Live [1980]). And just when we think the album is going to mash out hard rock from beginning to end, we are jolted into a little fantasy medievalism with the next two tracks, “The Battle of Evermore” (check out the Tolkien, Lord of the Rings references) and “Stairway to Heaven”, where Page’s first-time (!) experience with mandolin and iconic solo electric guitar passages wrap around Plant’s mystical lyrics (Plant was only 22 years old at the time). “Stairway to Heaven” is in the rock ballad canon because of its dramatically drawn out development and increased intensity over a steady chord structure. It’s one of the greatest songs ever, not because of profound lyrics, but because of its incomparable instrumentation and vocal performance. Yes, it has been overplayed and over analyzed, but it still moves. The amazing guitar solo (at 5:55) and the wailing lead vocal on the closing bridge (at 6:45) still bring shivers after a thousand listens. Side two begins with “Misty Mountain Hop” providing an explanation of the contrast on side one between the ‘now’ of the first two tracks and the ‘then’ of tracks three and four. After a tale of a druggie’s awkward encounter with a cop in the mundane ‘now’, the artist concludes with a flight to ‘then’: “So I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains Where the spirits go now Over the hills where the spirits fly, ooh” And the listener, clutching a copy of Tolkien, The Hobbit, is glad to go along for the ride. The ‘now/then’ duality is beautifully pictured in the cover art, where the front side shows the weathered ruins of an interior wall adorned with an old painting of a seemingly even older man, contrasting with a modern but dull and overcast cityscape where buildings battle with trees on the back side. And between concern for “when the river runs dry” (in “Four Sticks”, featuring Bonham’s superlative drumming with four drumsticks in 5/8 alternating with 6/8) to the droning blues dread of what will happen “When the Levee Breaks” we hear of a search for the perfect woman as the acoustic guitar (Page) and mandolin (Jones) accompany the softly melodic tune “Going to California”: “To find a queen without a king They say she plays guitar and cries and sings... La la la la Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn Tryin' to find a woman who's never, never, never been born.” When in fact she has been born, and her name is Joni Mitchell, and Robert Plant knows it. But he can dream, and so can we. I will listen to this album till the day I die. 5/5

Hard to argue this should be anything but a 5. I won't waste my time justifying. Go live your life

Oh we heard you like classic rock, lord of the rings, and poetry. Here is an album you might enjoy. Mastapiece

Unimpeachable. Nearly every song on this album is a classic.

Black Dog, Stairway, AND Levee?! You gotta be kidding me

I don't even know what to say about this one. This album is part of the fabric of my life. I remember being ten years old, listening to it as loud as possible with my friends' parents. Songs on this album underscored crushes on boys in Zeppelin t-shirts. I've listened to it on many car rides to cottages in the summer, from my first time having the car for a weekend in high school through to the last summer pre-pandemic. It's impossible to be objective, it's one of the greatest albums of my life.

I seem to be mostly alone with this opinion, but here goes: I find Led Zeppelin overrated. That said, this is still a really good album. I like it much better than the other two LZ albums we've had. And Stairway To Heaven and When The Levee Breaks are great songs. But I really can't see this as a masterpiece and tracks 5-7 were pretty weak.

One of the GOAT rock albums and a truely influential album. Zeppelin is like an all-star cast of musicians for this genre. When The Levee Breaks still has one of the most amazing intros of all time. A masterclass. Favourite Tracks: All of them, but special shout out to Misty Mountain Hop, Battle of Evermore, and When The Levee Breaks

1001 Albums To Never Hear Again Before You Die Chapter 1 - Led Zeppelin IV (Zoso, if you’re nasty) Dear Reader, In this first installment, I’ll ask you some baseline questions in order to gauge your eligibility for opting out of this album permanently: 1. Do you often find yourself in relationships (romantic or otherwise) with people you know are no good for you? If you answered no, do you enjoy feeding stray dogs? (Black Dog) 2. Are you partial to American made luxury cars?(Rock and Roll) 3. Do you like songs about hobbits and get amped up by J.R.R Tolkien and/or weed references? (Battle of Evermore, Misty Mountain Hop) 4. Would you like to reminisce about the time you got a chubby while slow dancing with your crush at your 8th grade dinner dance? (Stairway to Heaven) 5. Do you have a predilection for drum circles and a high tolerance for the phrase “oh, baby”? (Four Sticks) 6. Have you ever wondered what a Joni Mitchell song about wanting to sleep with Joni Mitchell would sound like? (Going to California - Give Zep some credit here, they were doing meta in 1971…truly innovative.) 7. Have you ever taken Quaaludes and tried to write a blues song? (When The Levee Breaks) Now, you’re probably asking yourself “how are these questions going to determine if I never have to listen to Led Zeppelin IV ever again?” The short answer is…they’re not. The truth is, you probably don’t ever need to hear this album again. You’ve probably already heard more than half of it on the radio/commercials/films/tv shows, or you’ve heard it in full hanging out at your weed guy’s apartment, or from an older relative who thinks it’s the pinnacle of mankind’s achievements in recorded music. But, if you find yourself enthralled by the prospect finding out the answers to the questions posed earlier, by all means, revisit this record. It’s actually pretty good.

This album is a fuckin' masterpiece. IMO stairway is the best song ever written (that I've heard) and totally deserves all the praise it gets. Black dog is surprisingly hard to play on guitar. Really jazzy feel but it's a rock song. Rock n Roll is such a simple tune but Plant's singing just sends it into the stratosphere. Even the more, uh, "adventurous" tunes are still interesting and hypnotic. The Battle of Evermore is basically a vocal solo. Interesting drumming, Jimmy fuckin' Page's leads... there's more or less nothing I can criticise about this album. It even goes for the perfect ~40min. And they were in their early 20s when they wrote it. It defies belief. 6/5 if I could.

This truly is one of the best albums ever released. 8 tracks, 6 huge hits. It's kinda unbelievable, even for Led Zeppelin.

Compelling range, and several great songs - Black Dog, Stairway to Heaven, Going to California, When the Levee Breaks. They avoid the trap that they seem to fall into on other albums, of just rocking out in a way that sounds cool but doesn't go very deep. Their best album?

I feel as if this album should be prescribed--at least every 10 years put on headphones, lie down, and listen to this album a little more loudly than you might typically (to 11, duh). Feel your brain be cleansed as incredibly tight, expertly played pure rock swaggers through your skull. Enjoy the vocals for the sound and whatever you do, don't think too much about the lyrics.

Arguably the best album -by possibly the best rock band to ever grace the planet.

There are days when you are disappointed with the albums, others when you're surprised or pleased. Today is a very special day. It is akin to Charlie finding the golden ticket. Such a brilliant album from the first second to the last. It really makes my Monday feel a bit closer to a Friday.

You already KNOW this is getting 5 stars! What an incredible showing, from groovin rock songs to intimate, delicate acoustic arrangements, IV may be the peak of Zeppelin's performance. It's more polished than 1, but more raw than later work. Seriously dig it.

When they say "they don't make them like they used to", this is what they have in mind. In my humble opinion, Led Zeppelin IV is the second best album of all time. Apart of containing groundbreaking music (which, later, provided some "rejects" to Physical Graffiti) , with songs like Stairway to Heaven, there are plenty of spectacular individual performances here: John Paul Jones on mandolin in Going to California, John Bonham's solo at the start of Rock and Roll, and (of course) his so creatively recorded performance in When the Levee Breaks. Created by four individuals at the top of their craft, this is a masterpiece from start to finish.

I know this is usually the LZ album that appears on 'greatest albums' lists, but I didn't realise just how many classics they crammed on here. It's also a good touchpoint for a lot of their different styles: rocky, folky, bluesy, Stairway to Heaven-y. It's not perfect but it's still worth 5 stars.

Probably my favorite album of theirs, has quite a bit of range and they are quite far along with their style that this is a great vertical slice of Zeppelin. Unfortunately it's almost become too ubiquitous that I have a hard time separating it from a lot of people that taints the impression. However, it's not my favorite style of rock and I don't always wanna listen to Zeppelin in general. I actually prefer the slower songs like The Battle of Evermore and Stairway to Heaven (as much as it was overplayed). I quite enjoyed Four Sticks with the addition of synths and the percussion is a lot of fun. Culturally and of the genre a 5 but in terms of listening pleasure it's a 4.

Man, the hits here are absolute bangers. But the tracks that aren't hits are major misses. Miles off the mark. It's insane to me that the same album that contains "Black Dog," "When the Levee Breaks," and "Stairway to Heaven" also contains "The Battle of Evermore" and "Four Sticks" which are ... well, there's a reason you probably haven't heard them. They're not bad enough to tank the album but they do pull the rating down a star.

Really dont like led zeppelin

The fiviest of five stars. Theory: though Robert Plant was necessary, as every hard rock band had to have a wailer, this is all about the other three. Case in point: Bonham's drumming on When The Levee Breaks. Case two: Stairway to Heaven is the best example of can hardly hear it/quiet/soft/nice/loud/very loud dynamics ever recorded. Who cares about the lady who knows? Not me Clive.

A bona fide goddamn rock 'n' roll masterpiece! It's way nerdier than you'd think, but it's fucking glorious. Imagine buying this album in 1971? You get it home, you put it on thinking "sweet, new Zep" and then they relentlessly assault you with so much motherfucking badassery for 42 minutes and 35 seconds you don't even think your brain can process one more shit hot guitar lick? What a time to be alive. Wish that's how I heard it for the first time.

Almost totally non-experimental, with the narrow exception of some parts of Four Sticks. Still an immaculate straight rock album: Inescapable, cohesive, with many corners which have been partially duplicated since. Even Battle, the low point of the tracklist, manages to make moving upper notes on a guitar sound moving, plaintive, not done-a-million times. The followup fails the latter criterion through no fault of its own.

I'm back and forth a lot over which Led Zeppelin album I think is their best. But honestly, I think, song for song, IV really delivers everything that Zeppelin is about as a band. If you listen to classic rock at all, you probably know most if not all of these songs. They are stone cold classics, all of them. I cannot stress enough how rare that is in an album. Yeah, a few have been overplayed somewhat in the past 50(!) years. But this is an album that holds up ridiculously well to repeat listening. From the mega energy “Rock and Roll,” to the grandiose, epic “Stairway to Heaven,” to the delicate acoustic “Going to California,” to the slow burning blues of “When the Levee Breaks,” every flavor of Zeppelin is present here. “Black Dog,” my word. That is possibly the best intro to any album that I have heard. It's perfection. Fave Songs (All songs, in order from most to least favorite, adding that I love them all): When the Levee Breaks, Going to California, Rock and Roll, Black Dog, Stairway to Heaven, Misty Mountain Hop, Four Sticks, The Battle of Evermore

Led Zeppelin provides crucial evidence in the age old debate about what would happen if the greatest cock rock band of all time was made up of a bunch of Tolkien nerds. Turns out it's pretty cool. This album is excellent the whole way through, and it finishes even stronger than it starts. Stairway to Heaven gets a lot of the attention for this album, but When the Levee Breaks is my nomination for the best Zeppelin song of all time. 5/5

ashamed this is the first time i'm listening to led zeppelin... liked this album to listen to again. misty mountain hop is dooooope i love the discordance and atonality!!

Probably their best I've heard so far, which isn't really saying much. Stairway to Heaven is cool (if over played), the rest is pretty bland and typical. I'll be nice and give a 3 I guess. I don't hate it, but I definitely don't love it either.

I'm supposed to love this but I just don't

Wait, this is supposed to be one of the greatest Rock albums of the early 70s? THIS?!? Granted, Stairway to Heaven is a powerful and classic (albeit severely overplayed) track, but outside of that, I hear a lot of generic white-men-playing-the-blues rambling and songs without too much variation or ideas. The Battle of Evermore is pointlessley meandering without going anywhere. The same could be said about Four sticks. Going to California is a welcome change of pace, but is too generic to be really good and sounds the same throughout. When the Levee Breaks left me shrugging. Led Zeppelin are supposed to be one of the best bands of the 60s/70s, but I've been suspecting for some time now that they are simply overrated. This is another case in point. 2/5

Led Zep are abysmal. Not even listening.

Feels a little silly writing a review of this, so all I'll say is that in case you weren't aware, "When the Levee Breaks" is one of the most sampled beats of all time, for example on fellow 1001 album lister Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill (Rhymin' and Stealin'). It's one of the hugest, heaviest grooves you'll ever hear, mainly because John Bonham is has a devastating sense of time that makes him one of the funkiest drummers ever and people will continue to borrow his beats for many years to come. Go listen to it again right now if you can, focusing on the drums. Magnificent. Listen to Black Dog, for example. The guitar and bass are playing these ridiculously complicated riffs and Bonham cuts through it all like Alexander The Great slicing through the Gordian knot, with an incredibly simple beat that takes great maturity and musical instinct to conceive, and immaculate sense of time to execute so effectively, and provides a powerful contrast to the busy strings. People tend to get distracted with the fiery guitar and Lord of the Rings references and blues thievery but for me at least, Bonham is the most interesting and probably most influential musician in this band and this album is a tremendous showcase for his talents.

That was so good 😊

When you get down to making out, whenever possible, put on the first side of Led Zeppelin IV. - Mike Damone

Well, come on now…. Could there be a more influential rock album? Rock song? There’s an argument to be made, but probably a waste of breath. It’s not my all-time, but deserves the accolades of a top ten. So 5, despite the plagiarism.

Another classic, even if Stairway is the most overplayed song in history.

A classic of course - can't really review it neutrally as I have the vinyl and have listened to it repeatedly, though not for a while. Not sure my 52 year old self likes it quite as much as my 17 year old self did, but it is still pretty good.

Yes! Finally an album that I'm quite familiar with. Immersed my self in all the 60's classic bands when I was just a young pup coming of age to the realization of what music means. What an album. Hell, what a band! Full blown classic Zep' immediately on display in Led Zeppelin IV from the opening riff of Black Dog to the unmistakable hard drumming of Bonham in When the Levee Breaks. Been a long time since America simply rock and rolled and no one did it better than LZ. The fantasy interlude of The Battle of Evermore slows down the album and not one of my favorites but an enjoyable tune non the less. Admittedly, I switch the station if Stairway to Heaven comes on but still fully appreciate the impact and value of Stairway and the lyrics. And if I do listen to it, can still bring on the goose bumps...does anybody remember laughter (added in one of their live versions). Right back into the head banging, body thumpin' with Misty Mountain hop. Why don't you take a good look at yourself and describe what you see and Baby, Baby, Baby do you like it? Always thought the lyrics were drowned out in Four Sticks. Going to California is one of my favorites, not of just Led Zeppelin's. Could listen to it over and over. Meet you up there where the path runs straight and high...Tellin' myself it's not as hard, hard, hard as it seems...it's hard (it's hard included in a live version). And one last full blown hard rock song with Plant's unique singing exhibited: Don't it make you feel bad When you're tryin' to find your way home You don't know which way to go? If you're goin' down south They got no work to do If you're going down to Chicago. A-ah, a-ah, a-ah...

Misty Mountain Hop and Going to California are forever favorites. It's really hard not to love this album and really hard not to skip Stairway to Heaven.

There is a lot of plagiarism on this album, it’s so brazen, like one of those hiding in plain sight situations (Jimmy Saville). I get that stairway is a boomer anthem but it made me feel nothing. It’s a decent album overall but it’s like they colonised black music and copywrited it.

The fourth rock album from Led Zeppelin was a critical and commercial success, as well as the band's best selling album. The album is certified 24x platinum which makes it diamond certified too. The band's most popular song "Stairway to Heaven" also comes from this album. This album is regarded as a cornerstone of the 1970's hard rock music, because it had a great diversity of songs and was so popular. I thoroughly liked this album and will listen to more Led Zeppelin songs I haven't heard yet.

Messieurs Boombastic (Not quite telephontastic) The good here is very very good. The not so good is just that.

it’s like a country album but with rock. i don’t like it, i only like one song. 4/10

My friend Twelve Pint Simon loves this record. He used to travel to Belgium every weekend and play it LOUD so all Belgians could hear and kiss him on his mouth. I said "Nobody likes phlegmish kisses" and he said "did you just say phlegmish or flemish?" Then I pointed out that they are homonyns and I was making a pun. Simon laughed, went outside and ate crisps in the carpark.

girl this sucks

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... i'm bored LMAO

Black Dog has got to be one of the greatest album openers ever.

led zep. a classic, 10/10.

I mean come on its a classic

Obviously already know this album in and out, what an absolute classic. Insane how many great songs are on this album, not a single dud in my mind. Not much to say about this album, it's so god damn good, vocals, guitars, drums, bass, everything sounds great and everything is so well written.

Dang. This album is still great. Many five star moments. Although the herky-jerky parts in Black Dog still feel bad, kind of like when walking down steps and almost tripping to your death but catching yourself at last moment. Sooo, is Bread Zeppelin anything? Stairway to Leaven, amirite?

Unpopular opinion: My favorite Zeppelin album is In Through the Out Door. That’s my easy five star album. But unfortunately it did not make this list and there is NO WAY Led Zeppelin is not getting five stars from me. So this is the one. It probably deserves 5 stars even if it isn’t my favorite.

First rate

Now we're talking! Apart from that song, which is one of those overplayed ones, not a duff song. Sandy Denny on Battle of Evermore is beauty in song form. Rock n Roll shakes your booty and Four Sticks is another favourite.

A classic!

Such a massive album. It’s one of those albums that’s larger than life at this point. This is a work of art that, like a Monet or the Mona Lisa, will outlive everyone in the era that it was created. It’s an album that people will probably listen to on other planets one day. This is for good reasons. It’s a tremendous album from start to finish, with hardly a miss. It’s heavy on the blues: Black Dog is such an all time great album opener. It’s such a killer take on the blues, with syrupy Page licks and powerful vocals from Plant. Rock and Roll serves as updated take on straight ahead rock. The Battle of Evermore is a shockingly nerdy detour into the world of Tolkien that somehow works. And then, Stairway. Even if the rest of the album sucked (it firmly doesn’t suck) Stairway to Heaven would still have given the album immortality. It’s one of only a handful of songs that will exist so long as human consciousness exists, perhaps beyond. Perhaps the biggest complement to the greatness of Zeppelin IV is that the back half stands on its own to the impossibly great first half. Misty Mountain Hop brings some fun to the record. Four Sticks is the only arguable miss on the album and not a go-to stand alone track, but it does fit well sonically on the album and gives the listener a bluesy breather before the incredible ending tracks. Going to California is one of at least four songs on Zeppelin IV that could be argued as the band’s best song. It sounds mystical, is fantastically sung by Plant, and tells a terrific tale of a forlorn hero who smoked his stuff and drank his wine and had an adventure. One of the better Plant/Page songs lyrically. The finale cements the god-like status of the album. When The Levee Breaks is my personal favorite track on the album: it’s an insane take on the blues. It’s a wild, stomping medicine man of a song. The harmonica goes harder on this song than anywhere else in rock music, and it gives the song such a raging urgency. All bow down to Zeppelin IV.

Had to be 5.

IV is a fantastic album. It's got one of the most recognizable and accessible Zeppelin songs in Stairway, and it's got one of my personal favorites in Battle for Evermore. It's probably a close tie for me between IV, III, and Houses of the Holy for my favorite Zeppelin album, but why choose? They are all electric and timeless.

Quintessential classic rock. Explosive energy is occasionally interrupted by softer, more sincere songs, summed up in one of the most legendary ballads of all time in the middle and tied up with incredible vocals. Flawless instrumental work and no skips. Favorite song: Going to California.

This is what I'm talking about when I say classic rock 4.6/5

• 5/5 - maybe the greatest Rock album ever • Stairway isn’t even the best song on the album! • They knew it was so good it didn’t need a name . . .

I had become a bit averse to dad rock in this exercise - especially with the biased scoring of some of the records from the same era and genre - but listening to this one - it is just a masterpiece - with the bangers, the band’s groove, John Bonham’s drums and the general story telling of this album. Even next to the other Zeppelin albums - this is stellar.

Clearly

What an incredible album. I remember how excited I was when I first heard this. Sheer magic. 10 stars.

It's LZ. 5 stars.

One of the best albums of all time

Another album I have on Vinyl. Bloody generational

Still a classic

An all-timer. It blends hard rock, heavy metal, folk, mythology in such a complete and masterful way. No weaknesses, and each of the 4 band members bring so much in their playing and singing. Don't even have to ding them for not giving credit to many of the songs' original writers like they are more guilty of on other albums. Except for maybe "Stairway to Heaven", which is overrated anyway. Favorite is "When the Levee Breaks".

All time classic.

Es increíble la racha de obras maestras que tuvieron los Zeppelin. Otro disco increíble e icónico, y nada menos que el que nos dio Stairway. Y el resto de las canciones son igual de buenas. Glorioso.

Brilliant album but I expected it to be a little more punchy.

What a bunch of nerds

#381. There's nothing I can say here that hasn't already been said, or that would add to the conversation in any meaningful kind of way. So instead I'll just say that while I have no real desire to be a guitarist or play the guitar in a serious fashion, I do want to learn how to play Stairway to Heaven just well enough to be recognizable, just to see how many guitar stores I can get kicked out of for playing it. 5/5: obviously.

Perfect album. 5 stars all day.

Led Zeppelin doing everything they do best. Timeless.

Þvílíkir meistarar. Algjör dúndurfílingur frá fyrsta lagi að því síðasta. Rokkað stup í bland við rólegheit. Þetta gerist bara ekki betra. Ég veit ekki hvernig platan hefði getað verið betri svo þetta er fimma

So many hits. I can't say enough about this album. But, I'll always be a Zep fan.

Classic album

Nothing new can be said about the best hard rock album ever and one of the best albums ever overall. I haven't listened to it for a long time and once again I enjoyed this iconic album very much. What a masterpiece.

Listened Before? Y Well, there's not much more to say about this one other than it's one of the most influential and classic hard rock albums of all time. Close to perfect. Added to Library? Y Songs added to playlist: Going To Californit

Classic.

Teenage me loved this album!

One of the all time classics.

I don't need to explain why this is one of the greatest albums of all time. Just get off your ass and go listen to it if you haven't already.

9/10

The best….

A stone cold classic. It’s funny, I was just chatting with a friend at work yesterday about how I completely saturated myself with Zeppelin’s music when I was a teen. I overdid it so much that I couldn’t listen to zeppelin at all for literally decades. He said that he finds Page’s arrangements to be so good that they’re perennially magical to him. When I listened to the album this time, I pushed through memories of singing in the ear of whichever poor girl agreed to last dance with me at a high school dance. Four Sticks was a surprise favourite this time around. And Battle of Evermore. I knew nothing about Tolkien when I first got into this album. I know a lot more LOTR lore now and that stuff really stood out to me. It’s a brilliant album and I’m grateful to hear it with somewhat different ears haha

Like. C’mon. It’s gonna be 5 stars

Essential!!!

This album feels like reconnecting with an old friend. Excellent from start to finish.

Best Teenage Purchase I ever made

Surprised myself by finding this brilliant. I've heard most of the tracks before of course, but never heard the album in full. Not someone who reminisces for classic rock, but I really got into this. 4.5/5 if I'm honest but it's got enough to round up

This is a top ten album of all time for me.

This album just keeps cranking good song after good song

One thing I am discovering doing this project is I like Led Zeppelin a lot more than I realised Never really listened to them that much before but this is their 2nd 5 ⭐️ album from me

What to say that hasn’t already been said…? Nothing. It’s a perfect album. Now is it the best Led Zeppelin album? Maybe, I’m not sure. But still, this album is about as good as it gets. Starting off with Black Dog, wowwwwww! Who hasn’t heard the amazing vocal performance and riff on this track before?? And the solo????? It’s such an energetic piece to start off the roller coaster that is this record. 10/10 Of course next you have Rock and Roll. Again, superbly popular riff with spectacular drumming as well. Everything is just so coordinated and comes together so well. 10/10 The Battle of Evermore? This is where things slow down a bit, showcasing the path Robert Plant aimed to take for this album. You got your classic heavy rock mixed with some folkish, beautiful strumming and mystical singing. A real underrated piece of Led Zeppelin history. 10/10 Stairway to Heaven. Of course, many have probably heard it a bit too much (especially Led Zeppelin themselves), but that doesn’t make it any less amazing. The riff, the soft vocals, the amazing lyrical prowess, all leading to one of the best payoffs in music history. 10/10 Misty Mountain Hop, honestly this might be my favorite on the album. I don’t know why, it’s just so entrancing. The simple rhythm and the strangely mixed instrumentals bring about so many mixed feelings, I just can’t explain other than it sounds great. 10/10 Four Sticks, aptly named after the drummers tendency to play with 4 sticks. And the drumming is obviously amazing. And Plant’s singing?? This has got to be up there with one of his greatest performances. And of course Jimmy Page is doing great but you already knew that. 10/10 Going to California, another beautiful track. Really, you’d never expect this from Led Zeppelin of all bands. It’s just so beautiful I can listen to it for hours. It’s wholesome and nostalgic and every good feeling you can have all at once. 10/10 When the Levee Breaks, what a closer!! Everyone’s abilities are on full show. The band ends their phenomenal record with a conclusion that gives the best of everything rock. 10/10 I know none of my thoughts are particularly original, so I’ll keep this review up as a diary to myself: you need to keep listening to this record. Trust me, it’s pretty good.

Tapestry for my youth. I still enjoy it whenever I put it on as a 44 year old

Pretty much as good as it gets. Hard to add anything new to the discussion, except for the fact that I will defend "The Battle of Evermore" with my life!! You can say "Four Sticks" is below average all you want, but leave the silly Hobbit song alone, man!

Sept. 25: y’know what? I’m gonna save this for a worse day Sept. 30: not a bad day (windy and chilly tho), just wanted to close out this month with some Zep Perhaps I just mean that I’ve heard it on the radio too much, but in terms of Zep opening tracks, the stop-starty “Black Dog” might be my least favourite, save perhaps “In the Evening”. Of course, that’s going up against stiff competition as “Achilles Last Stand” and “Good Times Bad Times”, so one could also say I just don’t love it as much as the other tracks. Of course, radio overplay doesn’t mean I don’t adore “Rock and Roll”, “The Battle”, “Stairway”, “Misty Mountain Hop”, and “When the Levee Breaks”. The song I hear the least is, wait for it, “Four Sticks” but that means it felt like I was hearing the chiming guitars towards the end for the 1st time. And “California” is great!-but I will always overlook it in favour of “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp” & “That’s The Way” from III. If it wasn’t for III, then IV would probably be my favourite.