Best Led Zeppelin Album?

Presence was robbed.

there are lots of folks that genuinely hate Presence. I love it. "Achille's Last Stand" is definitely proto-metal

Don't get hating Presence at all. I can see not liking it as much as other LZ records, but if you like Zeppelin why would you deny yourself the majesty of Presence?

I think lots of folk tend to gravitate towards either early Zep or later Zep more, guessing most of the Presence haters are more early-Zep fans. Obviously that's oversimplifying a bit but I definitely started out as more of a late-Zep fiend before I developed more appreciation for blues-based rock. would still put Houses of the Holy up top.

"bring it on home" = best album closer

I am a very latecomer to Led Zeppelin albums and Presence is easily my favorite, has such a consistent sound/groove, doesn't have songs you've heard a million times on the radio, only one boring blues jam. Last week I thought "maybe I should listen to a non-Presence LZ album for a change" so I tried "In Through the Out Door" and after a few songs I just put Presence back on.

"Achilles Last Stand" is so amazing.

The top five results are basically correct in any order (any of the five could be my favorite depending on the day), with the first two and Presence trailing just a bit behind.

Man make sure you give "Carouselambra" some time, that song is great. In Through The Out Door definitely has its moments, but it isn't a great straight listen compared to Presence etc.

Sorry, that is in regards to In Through The Out Door generally.

man got to give it up to the wisdom of crowds, that's precisely the order i'd have them in

Fuck man, gonna listen to "Carouselambra" right now.

Yeah, reading/talking/thinking about Led Zeppelin pretty much always makes me want to listen to Led Zeppelin. See also: eating, walking, sleeping.

i admire presence but i don't often enjoy it. a lot of it seems gruelling. a lot of it seems joyless. if i never hear dinner for two (or whatever that really long cousin-of-since-i'v-been-loving-you that closes the album is called) again i'd be fine with that.

The intro to that song is great though, wish they had built a song around that.

oh yeah, definitely. quite a bait and switch, "oh shit, loving the sassy groove of this, oh wait oh no it's going slow did someone buy jimmy some junk?"

Hah yeah, pretty much.

I like all periods of Zeppelin but there is something about the post-PG stuff that sounds somehow harsher and colder, more metallic. To me you can audibly hear Page switching over to a different engineering approach, and it's not just in the synthesizers. I almost want to say its like the difference between analog and digital, although I know that is probably not entirely correct. Not saying it's worse either, just different.

New studios? Prescence was done in Germany, and ITTOD was done at ABBA's place in Sweden.

page also switched into a heroin addict. word is he was falling down zoned while they recorded 'presence' and by 'in through the out door' dude was toast and could barely play

there are lots of folks that genuinely hate Presence. I love it. "Achille's Last Stand" is definitely proto-metal

― Neanderthal, Thursday, June 5, 2014 3:48 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Proto-metal? In 1976?

You could call something that came out in 1966 "proto-metal". But I think the genre had been pretty much established by '76.

yeah last two albums are kinda plant and jpj taking the reins. maybe i just haven't encountered it or it's just due to the relative lack of work from page and plant going in a different direction but i've never seen much speculation on what the next zep album would've sounded like.

Maybe here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_r9n1FRh-o

Ugg, sorry for that formatting.

Bill there are still albums deemed "protometal" released in 2014

Page said he and Bonham had discussed making a heavier more riff-based record after ITTOD.

xp

Page also started using Fender guitars more often than Gibsons after PG for whatever reason

Gibsons weighed more than he did at that point.

i used to think of I as an inferior test run for II but i think i like i better now

always been a presence guy

haha that's an awesome fan-trolling tracklist of that bootleg grandavis posted :)

Presence has 'Achilles Last Stand' and 'Nobody's Fault But Mine', which together make up an incredible 16-17 minutes worth of music, but I definitely think the rest of the album falls short of the standards they'd set by that point. I can certainly understand why folks would have considered to be somewhat of a disappointment/let down after Physical Graffiti.

Also, absolutely agree on 'Carouselambra' being a great track. My highlight of In Through The Out Door by miles.

As for what I would have voted for in this poll? Fuck knows. Right now I'm thinking Physical Graffiti but in a few months time I'd probably have changed my mind.

"No Quarter" is such a complete miracle of a song / recording

Presence

presence

My beef with Presence is that Achilles towers over the rest of the album. If there had been one more go-for-broke track like it I think it would rank higher. That said, Achilles Last Stand rules.

They should've presented Teo Macero with "Achilles" and "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and said, "Now edit these into our In A Silent Way."

Nahhhh. There are some rad songs on the album, but Presence is def lower-tier Zep. You can argue about the order within the sets, but the two sets of four albums in the poll results are in the correct order.

And Led Zeppelin are easily one of my all-time top three, so I say this with love.

I'd put Presence just below the Big Four.

ugh i like the zed records with names more than any of the big four

presence is so muscular, everyone is so locked into each other, i just love hearing them play like that. it's the same feeling i get from the 1975-era tracks on physical graffiti but more

By 'Big Four', I mean the four which are correctly-placed at the top of the poll results.

Presence sounds to me exactly like what it is: a band following up their best album while one of their members is convalescing in a wheelchair. It's still great but the energy feels a little off.

By 'Big Four', I mean the four which are correctly-placed at the top of the poll results.

oh lol sorry, well i hella like presence and ittod better than iv and iii

and i think plant's performance on presence is tremendous given the circumstances, he invests a lot in the songs regardless

Presence is an example of biography influencing reception. I don't have beef with anyone who calls it undistinguished but I couldn't tell this from what kind of chair Plant's sitting in.

I didn't know the biographical details behind its recording until nearly twenty years of listening to it pretty regularly. The background just helped make sense of why it felt a little off.

alfred otm

it's good that I can't make out Plant's lyrics tbh