Led Zeppelin

This 1975 double album went gold before it was even released, based on preorders alone. Pieced together from material recorded but unused on the three albums that came before it as well two sides' worth of entirely new songs, Physical Graffiti proves the universal truth that the only thing better than good Led Zeppelin is more good Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page sets a new standard for riffs with "The Rover," "Trampled Underfoot" and "Sick Again," to mention just three, and John Bonham consistently steals the show with the most distinctive sense of rhythm that exists in rock music.

They've sparked riots from Boston to Milan, sold out concerts from Hong Kong to Hamburg.
Each of their five previous albums has gone platinum, selling more than one million copies;
one, Led Zeppelin (IV), has sold more than three million. They've set new records for U.S.
concert attendance, drawing 56,800 to a single show in Tampa, Florida, in 1973 and 120,000
to six concerts in the New York area in 1975. On paper at least, Led Zeppelin is u... More >

I suppose a group whose specialty is excess should be proud to emerge from a double-LP in one piece. But except on side two--comprising three-only-three Zep classics: "Houses of the Holy," "Trampled Under Foot," and the exotic "Kashmir"--they do disperse quite a bit, not into filler and throwaway ("Boogie with Stu" and "Black Country Woman" on side four are fab prefabs) but into wide tracks, misconceived opi, and so forth. Jimmy Page cuts it throughout, but after a while Robert Plant begins to grate--and I like him. (Grade: B+)