It's amazing how certain albums can rekindle your spirit, reach out, touch your soul, envelop you in its glow. This is the experience I had today, and it is because of this record.

As Led Zeppelin toured the US in 1972, under, at the time, the most band friendly terms ever (i.e. 90% of the entire gate), their fifth album languished due to various problems. For one, the band mixed the various tracks recorded for it over and over, finding it difficult to agree on a mix that truly worked. Besides that, the band had trouble deciding which of the multitude of tracks would make the final cut, and which would be vaulted for possible later use. In addition, the controversy over the album's cover art didn't help matters. Thusly, the fifth Led Zeppelin album, the first album not to be self titled, Houses of the Holy, didn't come out until 1973.

For those looking to Zeppelin to repeat their past hard rock glories, especially those found throughout Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin IV, they would most likely be disappointed. Despite the presence of some classic Zeppelin crunch, this album was by far the band's most diverse and adventurous to date.

This becomes obvious on the first track, the rambling five and a half minute The Song Remains the Same. The song featured various guitar sounds and tones from Jimmy Page, who originally called the song "The Overture" and then "The Campaign" before vocalist Robert Plant would add lyrics. While the song essentially pays tribute to the music of the world, the music suggests something on a grander stage, and not just Page's great guitar work; John Paul Jones' rolling basswork and John Bonham's driving bit of drumming makes the song feel desparate, as if the band is fleeing from something.

The band quickly contrasts that rollicking bit of power with a dour bit of bluesy balladry dubbed The Rain Song. If any Zeppelin fan were to cast aside the numerous contributions of Jones to the band, one need look no farther than this song for a perfect example of where his genius helped the song become something special, instead of an almost eight minute mess that it could have very easily become. This is also especially true on Jones' main contribution, the haunting No Quarter.

The best known track on the album, Over the Hills and Far Away, showcases both sides of the Zeppelin that was so prominently displayed on Led Zeppelin III and IV. The song basks in traditional English folk before morphing into a more powerful rock anthem featuring one of Plant's greatest vocal performances.

The one track that could be considered a mis-step is The Crunge, a goofy bit of dance/funk (for lack of a better term) that has long been thought to be a parody of James Brown. Thankfully, the band's other black musical influence of the time, reggae, inspired the shuffling D'yer Mak'er, although in its ending form, the song hardly resembled the music that influenced its creation.

Not to be lost in the shuffle are two more straight ahead tracks that recall Zeppelin's mastery of the rock anthem. The Ocean has one of the greatest riffs ever envisioned by a guitarist, the type of riff that had it been written by anyone other than Zeppelin, it would've become that band's defining song for ages to come (not unlike Aerosmith and the riff for Walk This Way). Dancing Days, meanwhile, was a slithering bit of swaggering rock and roll, a song tailor made for Plant's voice and Page's stage presence.

Houses of the Holy isn't the band's best record, and in fact, judging its place in the Led Zeppelin catalog isn't easy. Like every Zep album before it, however, it is an essential piece of a rock and roll fan's collection, and in many ways, it would act as a preview of how experimental and adventurous the band would become over the course of the rest of the decade, right up until the time John Bonham was found dead at the age of 31 in 1980, signaling the end of the band.



Recommended: Yes