My brother Mark is an infinitely huge Led Zeppelin fan. This past weekend he asked me what I knew about the live material being released next month (a 3 CD set and a 2 DVD set compiling a lot of amazing material), and we got into a conversation about Zeppelin's music as a whole.

It was interesting because without Mark, I don't know where my musical tastes would lie, and I certainly am not sure how much of a Led Zeppelin fan I would be. His influence on my musical tastes is huge to say the least. Zeppelin is his favorite band of all time, they are his band, no other band (Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction are the only ones that come remotely close with him) seems to really matter. So it's odd that in all the years I lived with him, he never had Led Zeppelin III in his vast collection of Zeppelin tapes. It was like the missing piece to the puzzle, and I automatically assumed that it wasn't up to par with the other albums the band put out throughout the 1970s. Granted I was 11 when I figured this, and have since learned exactly how wrong I was.

Led Zeppelin III is a rich and diverse album, a melting pot of musical styles stretching from straight up blues (the unbelievable Since I've Been Loving You) to a furthering of the band's fascination with Eastern cultures (Friends, although Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's reworking of it for their UnLedded special a few years back suggests they didn't take it as far here as they could have).

The album opens with Immigrant Song, a driving rocker propelled by Page's stuttering guitar riff and Plant's wailing "ahh ahhhh" screams. This is about as purely classic Zeppelin as it gets on this disc though.

The rest of the disc could be seen as mildly disappointing to fans of the more "classic rock" leanings of Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin IV, the two albums sandwiched around this one. But that's not to say the music is of any lesser quality; in fact, I've come to be burned out on most of those other two albums thanks to radio overkill, but this album sounds absolutely refreshing with each listen.

I like the breakdown towards the end of Out on the Tiles, a song that probably has one of the better vocal hooks of the band's career (in a pop music sense).

And the acoustic songs on this record are positively stellar. Gallows Pole is good, but Tangerine is a slice of pure pop heaven, replete with some nice vocal work by Plant, and as usual, stellar work by Page.

But my favorite song on the record is probably That's The Way, a song featured in the movie Almost Famous, and the song that convinced me above all others that I needed to truly delve deep into this album. This is definitely one of Zeppelin's finest moments in terms of crafting a song, where they put their libido aside, their blues band stuff aside, and just wrote a solid song through and through.

Led Zeppelin III doesn't get the airplay that the other 3 self titled albums does, and that's perfectly fine with me. Because of that, this album sounds fresh and invigorating with every listen. It is probably one of the more monumental accomplishments for the band in their early years, and it most definitely belongs with the other albums in the band's catalog.



Recommended: Yes