Review Summary: A dizzying mix of fragments of brilliance
[i]Led Zeppelin[i] is a pretty good debut and very influential, making for an enjoyable listen. However, the problem stems from the majority of it being mostly covers or "rearrangements" of songs not really credited to the original artists. It features the most amount of plagiarism on an album by them, which is pretty disgusting honestly, plus stylistically it still sounds like a premature band trying to find out what style they want to take their music.
"I Cant Quit You Baby" does [b]NOT[b] fit on the album whatsoever and sticks out like a sore thumb, yeah sure it's a blues song, but compare it to any of the other tracks, it sounds more on par with 60's psychedelia rather than the hard rock they were going for, and surprise; it's a cover! "You Shook Me" is also a cover and drags on and on getting boring, and this could have easily been averted had they changed up the song throughout it at all rather than droning on a single harmonica lick and the same riff for six whole minutes. "Babe Im Gonna Leave You" is also a cover but is an amazing song featuring some of Plant's best vocals and one of the best riffs that Jimmy Page has ever played, "Dazed and Confused" is phenomenal in every sense of the word, some incredible bass work from John Paul Jones, and the call-and-response tactic between Jimmy Page using a violin bow on his guitar with Plant's wails is genius. In fact, it's so genius that other hard rock and metal artists would do the same thing later on. However the problem with this song? It's again outright stolen, this time from a smaller artist who never had the chance to make it big, folk rock artist Jack Holmes. He never received credit for this and it went on for years until a court case.
"Black Mountainside" is outright stolen from "Black River Side" and also sounds like a hot mess with a guitar that sounds nearly out of tune that drives along a boring and repetitive drumbeat. John Bonham really wasn't at his strong point during this one, huh?
It's still an iconic album at least, and it's pretty good overall as an album, but I wouldn't rank it among the best albums in general of all time, or one of the mighty Zeppelin's best. If you can sit through the good songs even, you'll be annoyed with Robert Plant's overuse of vocal play with moans and random "babe"s and "hey!"s which he thankfully cut down as he grew more confident on their other albums.
They found their style more on [i]Led Zeppelin II[i] and though it still has its fair share of stealing, it's a [b]LOT[b] more original for the most part, sounds [b]MUCH[b] more cohesive, they settled into their style and it worked as a blueprint for the rest of their albums, but still this is not their best album. Not even close. However what is worth noting is Jimmy Page is definitely at the top of his game as always, and John Bonham really shines with his pummeling of his drumkit aside from the one song I mentioned that doesn't do him justice. "Your Time is Gonna Come" really shows the amazing skills at organ playing that John Paul Jones can do!
Track by track:
Good Times Bad Times: ★★★★
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You ★★★★★
You Shook Me ★★
Dazed and Confused ★★★★★
Your Time is Gonna Come ★★★★
Black Mountain Side 💣
Communication Breakdown ★★★★★ 🎖️
I Can't Quit You Baby ★★
How Many More Times ★★★★★
