{"id":11829,"date":"1975-02-24T00:00:07","date_gmt":"1975-02-24T00:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=11829"},"modified":"2013-06-01T15:01:28","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T15:01:28","slug":"album-review-led-zeppelin-physical-graffiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-led-zeppelin-physical-graffiti\/","title":{"rendered":"LED ZEPPELIN – Physical Graffiti (1975) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

LED ZEPPELIN
Physical Graffiti<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSwan Song (1975)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Despite friction within the ranks (bassist John Paul Jones had, allegedly, considered leaving during recording) Led Zeppelin<\/a> release their longest opus to date, a double gargantuan composition that features some of the band\u2019s best work.<\/p>\n

If anything, Physical Graffiti<\/em> is considered the definitive Led Zeppelin platter, one which seems to encompass every style of the Zep repertoire. The album is a true amalgamation of those smoking, bluesy, breezy folk songs and heavy rock spectaculars, peaking in the staggering eight-and-a-half minute Eastern-influenced \u2018Kashmir\u2019; a track so mighty that literally every other Zeppelin track pales in comparison.<\/p>\n

Of the 15 tracks on offer, most are upbeat bluesy rockers, boasting that Zeppelin swagger we\u2019ve come to know and love, and featuring Jimmy Page\u2019s hard-edged guitar sound. However, tracks such as \u2018Custard Pie\u2019 and \u2018The Rover\u2019 lack the pomp that made previous \u201chits\u201d so immortal. Even so, the lumbering \u2018In My Time Of Dying\u2019, with its bluesy twang, is memorable if overlong, clocking in at 11 minutes. But the jarring funk of \u2018Houses Of The Holy\u2019 and the shuffling bounce of \u2018Trampled Under Foot\u2019 are instantly accessible, the latter chugging like a full-steam locomotive fuelled by the struttin\u2019 John Bonham drum and having more in common with Stevie Wonder\u2019s jarring soul classic \u2018Superstition\u2019 (1972) if anything.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, we\u2019re treated to the nine-minute slow-burner \u2018In The Light\u2019, with its cosmic opening which builds with simmering aplomb to a psychedelic jam of sorts, with Robert Plant\u2019s vocals caressing Jimmy Page\u2019s trudging riff.<\/p>\n

The brief \u2018Bron-Yr-Aur\u2019 (which has no connection to \u2018Bron-Y-Aur Stomp\u2019 from 1970\u2019s Led Zeppelin III<\/em><\/a>) is merely an acoustic snippet which leads us into the mellow plod of \u2018Down By The Seaside\u2019, a song rescued from sessions recorded in 1971.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ten Years Gone\u2019, another simmering cut, builds from a gentle guitar sway and occasional bassy punch. Again, at over eight minutes it\u2019s a cut that is overlong and could have benefited by being a few minutes shorter, and one can imagine how this started out as an instrumental.<\/p>\n

\u2018Night Flight\u2019 is another upbeat rocker. Drenched in organ and kicking drum, it\u2019s pleasing to the ears, but nothing more. However, the last quarter of Physical Graffiti<\/em> is saved by the hard-hitting groove of \u2018The Wanton Song\u2019, which boasts a killer Page riff and swaggering energy, complete with Plant\u2019s throaty yelps of: \u201cSighing woman in the night, you came took my seed from my shaking frame\u201d<\/em>. It\u2019s as sleazy as the album gets.<\/p>\n

Of the final three tracks, only \u2018Sick Again\u2019 rears its head above a bluesy swoon. In fact, it boasts a dirty riff that is pure Zep \u2019n\u2019 roll, and Bonham\u2019s drums \u2013 which for the most part are all too subtle on this opus \u2013 are their usual hard-faced self. \u2018Boogie With Stu\u2019 and \u2018Black Country Woman\u2019 are half-decent tunes, the latter more of a lightweight ditty with its picky acoustic.<\/p>\n

And so, after 82 minutes we reach the end, still dizzy from the radiant impact of \u2018Kashmir\u2019. Physical Graffiti<\/em> is very much Led Zeppelin\u2019s White Album<\/em> (classic 1968 double album from The Beatles) in its diversity, and for the most part it succeeds as a rewarding rock album.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LED ZEPPELINPhysical Graffiti Swan Song (1975)Rating: 8\/10 Despite friction within the ranks (bassist John Paul Jones had, allegedly, considered leaving during recording) Led Zeppelin release their longest opus to date, a double gargantuan composition that features some of the band\u2019s best work. If anything, Physical Graffiti is considered the definitive Led Zeppelin platter, one which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[587],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-led-zeppelin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11829"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12126,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11829\/revisions\/12126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}