Review Summary: The mere sizzle of a once-epic band.
It's saddening when a great band sizzles out on their final release, yet, with a band as massive as Zeppelin was, I suppose it was inevitable that the rock star life excess caught up with them eventually. During the recording sessions, Jimmy Page was addicted to drugs to the point it impacted his ability to function in the studio hence the fact this isn't a very guitar-driven album, and Bonham was unfortunately far into his alcoholism and suffering from it. Robert Plant was also going through tough times himself, his young son had passed away while he was on tour, and I can only imagine how heartbreaking of an experience that must be; losing a child is something a parent never wants to imagine happening, it is the worst possible thing to happen in life. Due to this, the sessions were all weird and it was up to John Paul Jones and Robert Plant to be the main creative force behind this album.
The main question that comes to mind is "does it work?" the answer to that is a simple, sad no. That being said, there are a decent amount of gems that save the overall album from being anything too horrific. "In The Evening" is a fantastic guitar-driven song reminiscent of glory days gone by, with John Paul Jones' synthesizer giving a bit of a peek into the style this album will go, with it as a main part of the composition. Lyrically speaking, it seems to be about Plant's reflecting on his feelings toward the band's lack of care for him during his grieving and the decaying of morals similar to "Hots on for Nowhere", and even has some interesting tempo shifts in the riff! "Fool In The Rain" is another highlight with amazing keyboard work and a bit of influence from samba in the middle section with some genius melodic and tempo changes, this just shows the insane versatility of Jones and how important he was to the band's sound, its a shame really how the remaining members treated him after the breakup. "All Of My Love" is a beautiful song Plant wrote in memory of his son who passed away at a very young age while he was on tour. The composition may be heavily carried by synthesizer and a simplistic drumbeat that seems like a basic pop song, but what elevates it is the lyricism, with Robert Plant's witty yet heartfelt poetic words that take use of Greek mythology!
The rest is all rubbish with bits of brilliance scattered in tiny parts, and it makes sense why it's heavily disliked by many fans including myself, and critics. "South Bound Saurez" is a jagged mess that on one part sounds like something that'd play in a Wild West saloon with its odd keyboard work, but on the other hand as if it wants to be a hard rocker with the drowned-out guitar in the mix. The lyrics are awkward and are full of cringeworthy single entendres that are enough to make you question Robert's writing ability, especially during the overly long outro which repeats "Sha-La-La-La-La" over and over again until it's drilled into your brain, refusing to leave. "Hot Dog" is a rockabilly number that's clumsily fused with country that features Robert doing an unnecessary, horrendous Elvis impression with disgusting pedophilic lyrics (I mean, seriously, "I took her love at seventeen/A little late these days it seems" didn't raise any eyebrows back then?) that tell of a tale of a young girl being groomed by much older rock band members that are revealed by the end not to have really cared about her at all aside from sexual intercourse, as revealed by the line of comparing her to an old carpet rolled out of the door. Yuck.
"Carouselambra" seems to be a very divisive song, about half of those who know of it love it, the other half hates it. I'm definitely leaning towards the second side. Now, I must say I give the band credit for their use of sections such as the beginning which has fast-paced synthesized done by Jones with Plant's vocals pushed back and the clever overdubbing of Jones' bass guitar, the middle which slows the frenetic energy down to highlight Jimmy's guitar, and the final part that takes interesting use of a gizmo with all of the band performing together. I also appreciate the use of Jimmy Page's Gibson EDS-1275, something that he saved for live performances only. That being said, the song is too chaotic and goes on for an absurd ten and a half minutes of a mind-numbingly bland keyboard riff with Robert murmuring shoe-horned fantasy-tinged words about the band's history and downfall, and the mixing is horrible. The keys are too high in the mix and drown out everything else, especially the vocals. "I'm Gonna Crawl" is the textbook definition of repetitiveness.
All in all, while this does have bits of brilliance scattered throughout the journey through Zeppelin's new exploratory soundscape, there is a major lack in substance, and if this is the sound the band would have expanded upon into the 80's, I am quite glad they decided to call it quits. This is an improvement though over
Presence and was definitely necessary after that disaster. This is where the story ends, this was the real
coda.
Track By Track:
1. In The Evening: ★★★★
2. South Bound Saurez: ★★
3. Fool In The Rain: ★★★★★
4. Hot Dog: 💣
5. Carouselambra: ★
6. All My Love: ★★★★★ 🎖️
7. I'm Gonna Crawl: ★★
