Staff picks

We are, once again, a couple of days late to celebrate a groundbreaking album's anniversary. Led Zeppelin is a band with a complicated legacy, from uncredited "inspirations" to underage groupies to backmasking, but there's something truly mystical about their fourth album. Supposedly untitled, debuting the band's symbolistic emblems, and with the figure from the cover art taken from a Tarot card, Led Zeppelin IV is also probably the band's most consistent album. It's hard to pinpoint a song on this album that isn't a classic. There are no words needed for "Stairway To Heaven", which has became the band's trademark. "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" were rowdy even by 70s standards. "The Battle Of Evermore" and "Misty Mountain Hop" feel like early seeds for folk metal, "When The Levee Breaks" has one of the best grooves of all time. "Going To California" is a ballad that's so ethereal. And the only reason "Four Sticks" feels more forgettable is because it's in such good company, but it would've been some other bands' greatest song.