March 28, 1973 - Houses Of The Holy

Just 5 days after my last release, and a long 16 months after their fourth album, Led Zeppelin released their fifth album "Houses Of The Holy" on March 28, 1973. It's been a long time since their very successful last album, but Led Zeppelin are back with new material finally. This album focuses a little less on the blues-inspired rock of their early albums, and is a little brighter and more experimental than any of their other albums. Let's check it out!

Side one begins with "The Song Remains The Same" and some speedy guitar by Jimmy Page carries the song. He plays an early solo that is pretty good, and it slows down for the verse. Robert Plant's singing is a little quiet, but still good and after a couple verses Page hits his second guitar solo, and it is pretty sweet. Jimmy never lets up in this one, he seems to be playing something great for the whole 5 and a half minutes. The next track is titled "The Rain Song" and it has some slow, great-sounding guitar that opens and carries the song. Plant sings along very nicely to the melody while John Paul Jones plays some Mellotron that sounds really nice that also fits the mood well. Jones switches to piano adding another cool dynamic to this slow song. John Bonham finally joins around 5:00, and we hear the riff with a much fuller sound. Plant's singing picks up to his usual high notes and Zeppelin have put together a very well done song that just keeps getting better. Track 3 is called "Over The Hills And Far Away" and an awesome acoustic guitar riff starts off the song. It sounds amazing! Plant sings soft at first, but changes to his great regular voice when the whole band comes in. What a catchy beat during the verse! Really great stuff. Page's guitar solo is pretty cool, and the bass is great as well. It fades into distant-sounding organ playing the guitar riff to close it out. Side one ends with "The Crunge" which has some offbeat drums by Bonham and Jones' bass riff sounds super good. The song sounds like funk almost and Plant's singing is different than normal, but still sounds pretty good. We hear some really cool synths by Jones as well in this very interesting, very different from their norm song. There's lots of quick singing by Plant, ending with the line "where's that confounded bridge?"

Side two begins with "Dancing Days" which starts with yet another catchy guitar. Plant sings along to the beat and Page plays more guitar overtop of the main riff. It's a good song but nothing really jumps out on this one. The next track is called "D'yer Mak'er", which is pronounced similar to "Jamaica". It has a slow reggae-like beat, and some great drumming by Bonham throughout. Oh oh oh is a common lyric in this one as Plant sings simple love-y lyrics in this very laid back song. Page's reggae guitar riff is pretty catchy and his slow guitar solo is solid. It's no surprise this was a single as it's very catchy and easy to sing along to. Track 7 is the 7-minute "No Quarter" and some epic keyboards by Jones lead it off; it sounds amazing! Bonham's drums are fantastic as usual, and what a great fuzz-y guitar riff by Page. Thos combination makes for a truly grand chorus, one that you really don't mind hearing over and over. They go quiet again with just epic keyboards and Plant's epic voice. We hear another grand chorus and then Jones plays piano overtop of his other keyboards, and it is really awesome! The guitar is great as well in this instrumental bit and once again they quiet it down for another epic verse and chorus. Plant does some great yells at the end in this truly fantastic song. The final song on the record is "The Ocean" and the guitar and bass synchronize for an awesome, catchy riff. Plant's singing is just wonderful, and the lyrics are about the ocean of fans at their live shows. Page plays another guitar riff on top, and it sounds awesome. Plant does a solo la-la-la part that is pretty cool, and they also start a cool new part towards the end. It bridges into a nice guitar solo with Plant doing some doo-wop singing. A great ending to a pretty cool song and another great album.

That is the end of "Houses Of The Holy" and I thought it was a really good album. "No Quarter" is my favourite and an instant classic, and there are several other really catchy songs. Several of the songs were of a new style for Led Zeppelin, but they did all of them really well and have put together a fantastic record. But how does it shapes up against their previous albums? I think it easily surpasses "III", but the other three are also fantastic albums. I think it is even better than last year's "IV", but I still don't think it can match "Led Zeppelin", and certainly not "II". "Houses Of The Holy" will have to settle for third, but Led Zeppelin continues to makes some of the best music around. That's finally it for March, see you "next month"!