Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy

Although Edwin Meese would probably arrest you for the cover (it's a wonder the RUC didn't at the time), for my questionably informed money this is some of the band's best work. The range is more sophisticated and the production is better, and instead of just blues and rock there's ballads ("The Rain Song" — take that, George Harrison), wacky riffing ("The Crunge"), and even reggae ("D'yer Mak'er"). But yes, some blues and rock too: "Dancing Days" and Robert Plant's ode to his daughter in "The Ocean," plus a mashup of everything in "Over The Hills And Far Away" and the raucous, rollicking lead "The Song Remains the Same" (with a touch of prog to punch it up). One song fails to fire on most cylinders (the lugubrious "No Quarter"), the lyrics rarely match their tracks' melodic complexities and newer fans will wonder where the title track went (it's actually on Physical Graffiti even though it was recorded around the same time), but outside of their compilations I still think this album delivers more consistently than nearly all their other studio work. The 2014 reissue adds a second disc of rough mixes, though I submit that kind of thing was exactly why Coda flopped. (Content: no concerns.)

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Led Zeppelin, Coda

Not even Led Zeppelin can make an album of castoffs work. I'm inclined to cut this one some slack as its very existence is due to the band's unwillingness to continue compromised after John Bonham's untimely death, and for that I salute their integrity, but there's a reason they never used these songs: they're just not very good. Whether it's because they were basically soundchecks elevated to track status ("We're Gonna Groove," "I Can't Quit You Baby"), session castoffs ("Poor Tom," "Wearing and Tearing") or jams without a home ("Bonzo's Montreux"), almost none of these tracks really get off the ground and nearly all suffer technical or compositional flaws of some sort. After all, that's why they weren't ever used before, right? The best ones are probably the leftovers from In Through The Out Door ("Wearing and Tearing," "Darlene" and to a lesser extent "Ozone Baby") because they're the most developed and the most technically polished, but other than the interesting percussion solos of "Bonzo's Montreux" the rest of the album is predictable and predictably forgettable. Throughout Coda I had the distinct feeling that the good stuff was right around the corner, that we were just a bridge away from something marvelous, but nothing ever gelled or shook loose. Sadly, that feeling of unmet expectation is not a good note to end on even though it was the only one they were willing to play. (Content: adult themes on "Poor Tom" and "Darlene.")

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Led Zeppelin, Presence

Robert Plant observed in subsequent interviews that Presence was essentially the band's cri de coeur in a time of great turmoil. Being laid up in a roach-infested Greek hospital thousands of miles from your family would certainly qualify, but the band turned that strain into sharpness, which to me is a great relief after the excesses of Physical Graffiti. The production is high quality, but stripped down to an unadorned guitar, base and drums trio that yields an almost desperate, hungry feel to the music I'm sure Jimmy Page intended. "Achilles Last Stand" [sic]'s insistent cadence and tumultuous guitars always struck me as the deepest groans of a helpless giant drowning in circumstance, the perfect way to lead off, but it sort of goes downhill from there. Some of the Graffiti-esque Pommie blues keep popping up, unbidden and unwelcome, in tracks like "For Your Life" and (ugh) "Candy Store Rock," complete with its tedious B-side "Royal Orleans," though the former at least redeems itself by dropping the slavering sweet pretense in the second half. These detract from the raw impact not only of "Achilles" but also the other stand-out tracks, the mournful trudgery of "Tea For One" and the punch of "Nobody's Fault But Mine," where you feel the resignation in Plant's voice but the Bonham/Jones rhythm tells you he'll live. And maybe that's the album's message: the invulnerable British hard rock group made mortal, grappling with a maelstrom they'd never had to face, doing their best to make a stand of their own just as the legends did. (Content: drug references.)

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