Top 10 Led Zeppelin Albums

[Jesse]

Kinda lame idea for a list, but why not?

10-"Coda". Don't think these songs were ever meant to be released and with good reason. This set is a good notch below Zeppelin's standards

9-"Presence". I don't know, outside of "Achilles Last Stand", I didn't really "get" this one. Not bad, but I couldn't get excited about it like I did the others, even "In Through The Out Door".

8-"In Through The Out Door". Beyond "In The Evening", this one didn't sound like the Led Zeppelin we grew to love through the first 5 or 6 albums, but I always had a soft spot for it. Good songs, just didn't sound like Led Zeppelin. In retrospect, this is closer to Robert Plant's solo stuff than classic Led Zeppelin, but I like it!

7-"The Song Remains The Same". Don't usually like to include live albums, but I'm making an exception because Led Zeppelin only released 9 official studio albums. Not nearly as bad as critics and disappointed fans may lead one to believe, but it really shoulda and coulda been better. I like the choice of songs and Jimmy Page tears it up on a few of these tracks ("Since I've Been Loving You" in particular), but I can do without the marathon versions of "Dazed And Confused" and "Moby Dick".

6-"Physical Graffiti". Hate to put this one so low, lotta great tunes on it, but the double album was and is a bit too much Led Zeppelin for me to swallow in one gulp. If it were split into two separate albums, they both might rank higher than 6.

[Jesse]

5-III. A dark horse favorite among many Led Zep fans, but there's several tracks here that just don't do it for me. That said, the ones that DO do it for me are INCREDIBLE! "Immigrant Song", "Tangerine", "Since I've Been Loving You", "Gallows Pole", "Out On The Tiles" and "Celebration Day" all are outstanding. The rest? Meh.

4-IV. Extra points for being the first Zeppelin album I bought and getting me into them in the first place, however, most of these tunes are as worn out to me as my original cassette. Through the lens of their entire catalog, this is actually the perfect album to get one started on Led Zeppelin as nearly all of their styles before and since this album are represented here...… they are just done better on other albums. I mean, "Trampled Underfoot" is better than "Rock'n Roll", "Heartbreaker" is better than "Black Dog", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" is better than "Going To California" and so on. Still good songs, but not an album I get overly excited for anymore.

3- Houses Of The Holy. I'm a late bloomer on this one as "Dy'er Maker" always left a bad taste in my mouth for this album, but, track for track, this one holds its own with the rest of them!


2-II. My personal favorite, however, "The Lemon Song" lost its flavor after a dozen or so listens and I always thought "Moby Dick" was a great song ruined by a tediously longer-than-necessary drum solo. Still, who can argue with "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker", "Thank You", "Bring It On Home", "What Is And Should Never Be", "Ramble On", and "Livin' Lovin' Maid"? I can't!

1-I. While, "II" gets more listens as a personal favorite, track for track, "I" is better. No skip tracks on this one and the best tracks here aren't as overplayed on the radio as the best tracks from their other albums, therefor, even though this is the oldest album of the group, this batch of songs still sound fresh to my ears.


For the record: On another week, I might flip flop 1 & 2