Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin's seventh album confirms this quartet's status as heavy-metal champions of
the known universe. Presence takes up where last season's monumentally molten Physical
Graffiti left off -- few melodies, a preoccupation with hard-rock rhythm, lengthy echoing
moans gushing from Robert Plant and a general lyrical slant toward the cosmos. (Give an
Englishman 50,000 watts, a chartered jet, a little cocaine and some groupies and... More >

Originals and influentials they obviously are, but too often individual pieces of their unprecedented music aren't necessary. They didn't have time to get really silly here, so this is unusually consistent, but "Hots on for Nowhere" is as close as it comes to a commanding cut, and I prefer "Whole Lotta Love" and "Rock and Roll" and "Dancing Days." Nu? (Grade: B)