Presence

Led Zeppelin

Swan Song, 1976

http://www.ledzeppelin.com

REVIEW BY: Benjamin Ray

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/23/2005

The band called this the "guitar album." Jimmy Page said there was a definite "presence" there. It was almost titled Obelisk after the black object on the front cover.

Such trivia obscures what nobody wants to say: this album just isn't as good as everybody wanted it to be. How can anyone follow up IV, Houses of the Holy my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250 and Physical Graffiti? What this disc shows is the beginning of the end, the sound of a band disintegrating as they suffered through various addictions and personal tragedies.

That's not to say there aren't some brilliant moments here. It's just that the mundane ones are too frequent to ignore, and that has never happened before. I don't think "Royal Orleans" or "Hots On For Nowhere" would be caught dead on Led Zeppelin II, and it sounds like anybody could have written "Candy Store Rock." 

But this is worthwhile for its one truly great song, "Achilles' Last Stand." An epic with Greek overtones that also seems a band biography, the song truly defines rock epic, ebbing and flowing with thundering drums, multiple riffs and a racing bassline. Robert Plant sang his parts from a wheelchair, proving gods are mortal after all, but you would never know it from the power he puts forth; his final note, held for a good five seconds, sends chills up my spine still.

"For Your Life" and "Nobody's Fault But Mine" are solid rock songs that get by more on attitude than rhythm; "Life" is a particularly decadent tune perfectly in line with Zep's mental status around this time.

The experience ends with "Tea For One," a 10-minute deathly slow blues crawl that plods along ominously before ending on a solitary power chord. It has great guitar solos, a wonderful Plant performance, yet just crawls in the mud for three minutes too long. Maybe trimming that and putting on one of the outtakes that wound up on Coda would have enhanced this disc, I don't know.

It's a wonder it turned out as well as it did given the circumstances surrounding its recording. Presence is still worthy to be considered a Hammer of the Gods recording, but it showed the gods were mortal, after all.

Rating: B-

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