Jimmy Page

He couldn't have timed it better. The high priest of heavy metal, the pontiff of power riffing
and probably the most digitally sampled artist in pop today after James Brown, guitar
shaman Jimmy Page returns to the rock wars with his debut solo album – not counting the
so-so '82 soundtrack of Death Wish II – just as the Eighties Led Zeppelin renaissance goes
into overdrive. What better opportunity to reascend to Big Rock supremacy whi... More >

With the heretofore useless John Miles doing Plant (you barely notice when the man himself sneaks in for a song) and the heretofore unproven Jason Bonham doing Daddy (assuming Page isn't sampling Boom-Boom like everybody else, flesh and blood being no substitute for the real simulacrum in today's studio), side one is easily the best Zep rip ever recorded. Zep blooze, not Zep mythopoeia, with titles like "Wasting My Time" and "Wanna Make Love"; Page's riffs are classic, which isn't to say anybody has or hasn't played them before, and the momentum is fierce and enormous. On side two the mostly ridiculous Chris Farlowe takes over, his unlistenable "Hummingbird" inspiring fond thoughts of Leon Russell. Jimmy and Jason should form a band, invite Plant as a courtesy, and hope he turns them down. If Miles won't do what he's told, Lenny Wolf will be happy to step in. (Grade: B+)