Led Zeppelin - The Complete Studio Recordings
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Free Music Notes for The Complete Studio Recordings
Free Music Review: How did I live before this?
Hit: 5 Stars
Without this box set, you are not enjoying music as much as you should. Since there are no 'complete studio recordings' of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, or even Bob Dylan, this is without a doubt the greatest box set you could own. Except 'Coda', which was just included so it could really actually be 'complete' (I don't ever listen to it), all of these albums are must-haves. Let's start at the beginning.
'Led Zeppelin', the debut, is the most blues-influenced, and is one of the three greatest debut albums of all time, better than those of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, or any other artist besides Jimi Hendrix and the Velvet Underground. A great listen from start to finish. I rank it 4th among their albums.
'Led Zeppelin II' is the greatest sophmore effort ever. If I had to give this album another name, I would call it 'The Riff Album' because there are so many ('Whole Lotta Love', 'Heartbreaker', etc.) and the single greatest drum performance ever ('Moby Dick'). I rank it 2nd.
'Led Zeppelin III' is not up there with the first two albums. It is knocked for featuring mostly acoustic songs, and rightfully so. The best songs are 'Immigrant Song' and 'Since I've Been Loving You', neither of which are acoustic. However not all the acoustic songs are bad, such as 'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp'. I rank it 7th of the 8 albums released while Bonham was alive (all of them were except 'Coda').
'Led Zeppelin IV' is the masterpiece, the magnum opus, the pinnacle of the band's career. Even if the rest of the album was simple filler (though thankfully it isn't) it would still be remembered as the album 'Stairway to Heaven' was on. If you haven't heard the song, what have you been doing with your life? It is unquestionably the greatest song of all time, featuring the greatest guitar solo of all time. The rest of the songs are great as well, especially 'Black Dog', 'Rock and Roll', and 'When the Levee Breaks'. Definitely the #1 album.
'Houses of the Holy' is as good as you can expect from a band after what turned out to be their best album (certainly better than 'Magical Mystery Tour' after 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' by the Beatles and 'Goat's Head Soup', the Rolling Stones' follow-up to 'Exile on Main St.') All the songs are great, but my very favorites on this album are 'Over the Hills and Far Away' and 'The Ocean' and maybe 'No Quarter.' 'The Rain Song' is kind of weird, but still good. I rank this album 5th.
'Physical Graffiti' was the only double album the group released during their reign atop the rock world from 1969 to 1980. It features some great rockers ('Houses of the Holy', 'Trampled Under Foot'), a great acoustic song ('Ten Years Gone') an eleven-minute classic ('In My Time of Dying'), and their second best song ever ('Kashmir'). I rank this 3rd.
'Presence' was the seventh album released but is disc 6 so the 'Physical Graffiti' discs could be stored in together (two albums are in each case). It is the most overlooked Led Zeppelin album and it is very underrated. 'Achilles Last Stand' is one of my very favorite Led Zeppelin songs. 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' is also a classic. This album is a great listen to all the way through, though not as good as the top 5. I rank it 6th.
'In Through the Out Door', like 'Led Zeppelin III', has some great songs, but also some subpar ones. 'In the Evening' and 'All My Love' are top 15 Zeppelin songs at least, and 'Fool in the Rain' is great but not as great as the other two songs I mentioned. The others are average at best for any band, so for Zeppelin they are not good at all. Especially 'Carouselambara' which is way too long, ten minutes and a half, and takes up space that two songs that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page would've written would've taken up. I rank this at the bottom of the list, 8th.
'Coda': Don't even bother-I don't even consider it a true Led Zeppelin album.
Free Music Review: This box set is perfect in every way.
Hit: 5 Stars
At college, a bunch of my CDs were stolen, including every Led Zeppelin CD I owned. My insurance replaced them within a week. I didn't own every Zeppelin album on CD, and I owned two of the pre-remastered editions. When I replaced them, I got this set to compensated for my stolen Zep. I could not be more pleased with the results of this box set. There are three great things about it that will be discussed here.THE MUSIC: Every true rock fan knows the greatness of Led Zeppelin. Every song and album is a gem, and is essential to any music collection. Everyone has heard songs such as "Whole Lotta Love," "Stairway to Heaven," "The Song Remains the Same," and "Kashmir," to name a few. There are also many not so well known great tracks here, including "Achilles Last Stand," "In My Time of Dying," "All My Love," "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp," and "Black Mountain Side," to name a few. Plus, with the album Coda, you get bonus tracks unavailable anywhere else unless you buy the other two box sets, including the non-LP B-side "Hey Hey What Can I Do," the outtake "Baby Come On Home," and the excellent songs recorded for the BBC "Travelling Riverside Blues" and "White Summer/Black Mountain Side." Once you buy one Zeppelin album, you will want to buy more, and more, and more (just ask anyone), so you may as well get it all and more now instead of buying all the albums separately and wishing you had just bought all of them this way and also gotten the great bonus tracks. Plus, though not in the short run but definitely in the long run, it is cheaper to buy all the albums this way than to buy them separately, and this way, you get more for less.
THE SOUND: Having heard two of the albums before Jimmy Page himself took control and remastered them, I know from personal experience that the new sound shows a difference between night and day. Before, they sounded like a lot of old, unremastered CDs do, dull, not enough volume, and need improvement. Here every single track from start to finish sounds so fresh, almost as if it were recorded quite recently. It shows that Jimmy Page really cares about the fans, as there are many under 21 who are discovering or will discover Led Zeppelin, and fans from the time upgrading their music collection to CD, and the sound should be as sharp and "current sounding" as possible. And here, Jimmy Page not only satisfied himself, but also satisfied CD buyers everywhere with the incredible sounds coming off of these 10 discs.
THE PACKAGING: The way this box set is packaged is excellent. What exactly is on the cover of the box, I do not know, but it is cool. The lid of the box set fold up and can be pushed in so you can access the CDs right from your shelf without having to take the box off the shelf and disassemble it, which is quite convenient. Inside there are five hardcover books, each housing 2 CDs. In order for the packaging to work, the Presence album is coupled with Houses of the Holy in order to give the double Physical Graffiti its own book. But that doesn't matter, you can listen to the CDs in any order you want. Each of the books contain graphics of the original vinyl packaging, such as the six different covers (front and back) from In Through the Out Door, the turning wheel from III, all the inner sleeves, everything is here. There is also a very entertaining booklet, filled with a biography and plenty of pictures.
If you like Led Zeppelin at all, this is the way to go. All the studio albums with graphics of the original vinyl and as originally sequenced. Please take my advice, if you like Led Zeppelin, invest your money and buy this set. If you have any hesitations at all, it is very likely that you have friends that like Led Zeppelin. Listen to their copies of the ablums and find out for yourself. Even if you have to make sure that the investment is worth it, you will not be disappointed in the end. This is sure to provide you enjoyment for a long time to come.
5/5
Free Music Review: Your Best Bet For An Instant Zep Collection!
Hit: 5 Stars
Who dosen't like Led Zeppelin? Really, who? I once knew a co-worker who said he couldn't stand Robert Plant's voice, and I guess that could be somewhat understandable if you're focusing on the band's latter years when Plant got a bit whiny. But I'm sure Mr. Brian Alandar (that was his name) couldn't argue with Plant's incredible register climb near the end of "How Many More Times," the song that closed the group's debut album. That small section alone confirms Plant's vocal prowess and justifies his position as one of rock's greatest singers! As for me being a fan of the group, I had been away from a large portion of the band's catalog for MANY years. In junior high, Zeppelin ranked only second to The Beatles for me and I played my cassette collection to death. I could sing every Zep tune just like I could The Beatles, and that shows how much a certain group means to me! All these years later, I thought it was time to get reacquainted with the band's albums back to front and what better way than to just lay down my hard earned cash on this incredible set!
This 10-disc box set (9 studio albums with 1975's "Physical Graffiti" being a double) will, most likely, forever remain the best purchase to get an instant Zep collection. With the latest "Mothership" collection garnering more attention than it should and a new set of remasters probally waiting in the wings for 2009, fans shouldn't get their eyes clouded with pixie dust. There is no "outdating" to this superb collection, the sound quality is still top notch, and the packaging can't be beat. I don't think it could be improved upon. If you're feeling a bit iffy on the price tag keep in mind that you're purchasing 10 CDs and a small, hardcover booklet contained within a square CD holder case so the price is less than if you bought all the discs individually.
It's also worth mentioning that only in this box set is EVERY piece of original artwork from each album reproduced stern to stern. This isn't so with the individual releases, an example being "Led Zeppelin III" with it's famous "Farmer's Wheel" front panel. The gatefold with it's original text AND the wheel are reproduced in this box set. Also every inner sleeve that contained lyrics or photographs is reproduced as well, starting with the untitled fourth album whose sleeve contained the lyrics for "Stairway To Heaven."
This is a well worthy investment for ANY classic rock fan because there is no denying that Zeppelin was one of the greatest! The band crafted and incredible body of work from 1969 to 1979 that made the 1970's THEIR decade, just like The Beatles had ruled over the 1960's. Perhaps you'll like some of their albums more than others, but the mighty Zep didn't have one dud in their canon (well, save for the posthumous "Coda" in 1982 which is somewhat redeemed for this set by the addition of four extra tracks, even at that it still remains a bit of a hodge-podge). So if you gotta have some Zeppelin and don't mind spending a little cash, pick this one up before it goes out of print. Now all you need is "BBC Sessions," "The Song Remains The Same," and "How The West Was Won" and you're set! Just don't bother with the 1990 Led Zeppelin box set, why that one is still in print is beyond me!
Free Music Review: Still the best and convenient way to get all of Zeppelin's studio albums in one pass
Hit: 5 Stars
Led Zeppelin's first box set of all of their studio albums in one box entitled The Complete Studio Recordings was released in September of 1993.
Th Complete Studio Recordings by Led Zeppelin is a great box set that includes all NINE of the band's studio albums (Led Zeppelin I, II, III, IV (a/k/a Zoso a/k/a Runes a/k/a Four Symbols), Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti (a double album/2-CD set), Presence, In Through the Out Door and the rarities collection Coda) all in one place instead of either spending an extra $30 or so buying them all individually or buying the recently released mini-LP sleeve box set (which has all of those aforementioned albums (plus The Song Remains the Same Soundtrack album in its 2007 re-issued form) all packaged in mini-LP sleeves with original LP labels) although that set is still nice to have as well).
In addition to having properly remastered versions of all of Led Zeppelin's studio albums, the real treat on this set was the expansion of the 1982 outtakes album Coda which has four bonus tracks which were four of the five bonus tracks on the two separate Led Zeppelin box sets which had been released in 1990 and 1993 respecively. The bonus tracks on Coda on this box (and the 2008 mini-LP box apparently) are "Baby Come on Home" (which was an outtake from Led Zeppelin I and first appeared on 1993's Led Zeppelin Boxed Set II) and three of the four previously unreleased on Zeppelin album tracks from 1990's Led Zeppelin Boxed Set 1 which were "Travelling Riverside Blues" (recorded at the BBC in 1969 and excellent and was a rock radio hit in 1990 and MTV promoted the Zep box set when MTV was good), "White Summer"/"Black Mountain Side" recorded at the BBC in 1969 and the long-lost B Side to 1970's "The Immigrant Song" and a long time radio staple "Hey Hey What Can I Do" (recorded during the Led Zeppelin III sessions).
The sound of the albums as a whole have not ever sounded better, especially Presence and Led Zeppelin III (my two favorite albums of theirs) plus Led Zeppelin IV, Physical Graffiti(2 CDs), Hell all of their studio albums sound crystal clear on this box set (the mastering was done at the time of the 1990 box set and still best sounding of Zep tracks).
Also, the albums in this set come with the original vinyl artwork (save the Atlantic and Swan Song picture labels on each record (those are on the 2008 Mili-LP sleeve box set as is the 1976 concert film soundtrack album The Song Remains the Same)) and excellent liner notes courtesy of former Rolling Stone music writer and now famous movie director Cameron Crowe (Mr. Nancy Wilson to Heart fans).
This set is well worth the $100 price tag (10 CDs for over a $100, a bargain) and was also a Platinum seller despite the fact it didn't chart.
Hugely recommended!
Free Music Review: The Absolute Studio Experience of Led Zeppelin
Hit: 5 Stars
This, the Boxed Set of ten little CDs called "Led Zeppelin: The Complete Studion Recordings", is a commodity any Ledophile (my term there :D) will gladly pay for. Its title is a truth to itself, in content and its entire overview. This collection of Led Zeppelin's studio work is not only the complete STUDIO Recordings in themsleves, but it is another, deeper kind of Complete... It is a complete that is of not solely strategically placed microphones for sound's depth, it is not a complete showcase of other abilities of Jimmy Page's production, but it is a complete 12 years of the studio experience rolled up, or rather, boxed, into a complete in the physical realm, a complete... thing that we hold in our hands, as we try to avoid spilling the tears of our recognition onto its laminated cardboard, tears of recognizing that this we hold is a truth, a real truth, which can never be taken. Forgotten, yes, but never taken, and never rightfully either of the two. It is a truth of what happened, starting in the late October of 1968, ending in vile tragedy almost 12 years later, and that happening is so multifaected, like the firyest of gems, diamond in particular, for how HARD it is, how unscratchable. That truth is that Led Zeppelin was the best band that ever lived, all things considered, and still lives on in my heart, in every Ledophile's heart on Earth, and shall eventually die, but not after a tearful, laughing, exuding life of musical ecstasy. In short, it is a thing that is essential to any Led Zeppelin collection. After the lover of the Zeppelin has secured this in both the physical realm, and the realm of its own spirit, should said lover go on to experience the Live material, namely the BBC Sessions, which hark back to Led Zeppelin's beginning, of their paying tribute to the King, the Blues, and whatever else gave their culmination an ingredient. From there is the world of their DVD experience, simply titled "Led Zeppelin DVD", which is yet another teary complete neccessary for the understanding of Led Zeppelin. Or, if a Ledophile prefers, simply collect as is on whim. But never, never leave Led Zeppelin forsaken, for as soon as one era of Led Zeppelin becomes tiresome, be trusting in that there is another time of Robert, Jimmy, John, and Bonzo that is to your fancy, so long as you look... And always look, because otherwise you risk permanent blindness to the great, wide ocean that has been spawned, and God forbid that the Ocean be lost to you, for it is the key to new worlds, new depths, new LIFE, if you look for it. So buy this, for God's sake, but more for yours, and never forget to Love, for Love is what makes the Earth's people yours, and more importantly, makes you happy. And bieng happy is the cheif end in life.