Led Zeppelin - Presence - guest review
Led Zeppelin - Presence - guest review
Tracklist
01. Achilles Last Stand02. For Your Life
03. Royal Orleans
04. Nobody's Fault But Mine
05. Candy Store Rock
06. Hots On For Nowhere
07. Tea For One
Guest review by
Syk September 05, 2007
The band's seventh album kicks off with a dark ten-minute stomper that doesn't develop a whole lot but is still pretty good. It could very nearly be called heavy metal - something here instantly reminds me of the galloping style of Steve Harris but I'm not quite sure if it's JPJ's bass or something else. Robert Plant does a fine job similar to the previous few albums, while Jimmy Page delivers some truly great guitaring and Bonham gives a blistering performance on the drums. After this opener though, most of the songs could be considered filler. Tracks 2-6 are laidback rockers around the style of earlier hits "The Ocean" and "Custard Pie" but here are overlong and less successful. The riffs just don't stick like they used to, the structures are poor with un-rhythmic pauses and loads of unnecessary repetition, there's no lyrical spark like what appears in "No Quarter" and "Stairway", and - perhaps most disappointing of all - there are no shattering solos to be found. Closing track "Tea for One" sounds like a watered-down "Since I've Been Loving You" mixed with a hint of "No Quarter", inexplicably leaving out the explosions of brilliance from these earlier masterpieces. Its darkness and heaviness would normally have placed it among my favourite tracks but ultimately it's just too boring.
Production (on my remastered version, as always) is handled nicely by Page and thankfully the dodgy effects from prior works have been taken off Plant's vocals. Part of "Candy Store Rock" though has Plant singing a bit like Elvis Presley, which could be unsettling to a few of you.
Basically Presence is average and obsolete with two huge, intertwining flaws: All the songs are far longer than is ideal - even the 3 minute "Royal Orleans" feels like it drags - and we've heard it all before - much, much better.
Favourite tracks: "Achilles' Last Stand", "For Your Life", "Nobody's Fault but Mine"
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 6 |
| Originality: | 6 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by Syk | September 05, 2007
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments:
5
Visited by
110 users
 Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071
At first I thought you must have been crazy when you wrote this review, but then I realised that the ONLY songs I actually play of this album are the three you mentioned as your favourite tracks.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 180  |
Posts: 180
In my opinion this is the most underated zeppelin album. I do not agree with this review for the most part because this is one of my favorite albums of all time. I actually love all of the songs off of it.
Loading...
|
 Posts: 483 |
Posts: 483
interesting interview... i know where you're coming from, but i also find it pretty hard to find any Zeppelin that i don't thoroughly enjoy! Achilles Last Stand and Nobody's Fault But Mine are the only tracks that really stand out tho
Loading...
|
| JohnDoe
Account deleted |
|
 Posts: 64558 |
Posts: 64558
Band don't consider them as HM, Plant, page never said they were
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
Hits total: 6160 | This month: 12