Led Zeppelin

Houses Of The Holy found Led Zeppelin sounding more relaxed, a-la Led Zeppelin IV. Robert Plant's lyrics favored romance over mysticism, and Jimmy Page played the acoustic as much as the electric, sometimes fusing Roy Harper-inspired folk with the then still-evolving heavy metal sound as heard on "Over The Hills And Far Away," a truly amazing and grandiosely arranged number with an intricately arpeggiated intro that comes in second place behind IV's "Stairway To Heaven" for the song most covered in guitar store showrooms. Dig the Mellotron strings on "The Rain Song."

When George Harrison met John Bonham, the Beatle told the Led Zeppelin drummer, "The
problem with your band is you don't do any ballads." Singer Robert Plant and guitarist
Jimmy Page could have taken umbrage -- they had already written the gorgeous "Going to
California" two years earlier, for God's sake. Instead, they rose to the challenge. "The Rain
Song" is seven minutes of exquisite heartache, complete with Mellotron strings fr... More >

I could do without "No Quarter," a death march for a select troop of messenger-warriors, perhaps the band's road crew, that you can tell is serious because of the snow (when they're working up to big statements it only rains) and scary sound effects. But side two begins with two amazing, well, dance tracks--the transmogrified shuffle is actually called "Dancing Days," while "D'Yer Mak'er" is a reggae, or "reggae"--that go nicely with the James Brown tribute/parody/ripoff at the close of side one. Which is solid led, lurching in sprung rhythm through four tracks that might have been on II, III, or IV, or might not have been, as the case may be. (Grade: A-)