Picking a Favorite Zeppelin Album

Futile.

O.K., you can make some inroads. Everything after Physical Graffiti is out of contention. That still leaves 6 albums.

Led Zeppelin I
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin (real original, eh?) III
Led Zeppelin IV
Houses of the Holy
Physical Graffiti

One of the all-time greatest 6 album streaks in rock history. Maybe the greatest.

You can disqualify I and III, too. The benefit of hindsight is not beneficial to their first album. In 1969, hearing "Good Times, Bad Times" for the first time may have been something of an auditory orgasm, but when you've already heard "Trampled Underfoot," it doesn't wow you as much. The debut has no stumbling blocks, and provides a robust 9 tracks, but can't match up, song-for-song, with II. It's a little unpolished, which makes it a fun listen, but also a bit flawed.

"Immigrant Song" is fantastic (and so is "Tangerine") but the only person I've ever known to think Led Zeppelin III was the group's greatest album is exactly the type of person who would think Led Zeppelin III was the group's greatest album. Which is self-explanatory if you've ever met the person or listened to Led Zeppelin.

So we're down to four. And now it gets impossible. They're all totally acceptable choices. Like I love Hail to the Thief, but if I asked someone what his favorite Radiohead album was, and he told me HTTT, I would pretend to agree while mentally deciding to completely discard anything else this person said. With these four albums, I can totally understand any one of them being someone's top pick.

As an album, I am going to throw out Led Zeppelin IV immediately. "Black Dog," "Rock and Roll," "The Battle of Evermore," "Stairway to Heaven," "Misty Mountain Hop," "Four Sticks," "Going to California," "When the Levee Breaks." An unbelievable set of songs. But I think the song arrangement and, therefore, the pacing of the album are not up to the others. Although it has one of the greatest album closers I've ever heard, it kinda blows its wad early, and I'm not the biggest fan of "Four Sticks" (despite the awesomeness of the title, which came from John Bonham having used four sticks, two in each hand, to play on the track). Its almost painful to discard this album, because I'm looking at this tracklist and scratching my head as to why the listening math doesn't add up. But if I had to pick a Led Zeppelin album at random to listen to, full-through, it would not be this, and not because "Rock and Roll" is played at 5 minutes to the hour, every hour, on every self-respecting rock station, in every locale, because I listen to that song obsessively.

"Whole Lotta Love," "What is and What Should Never Be," "The Lemon Song," "Thank You," "Heartbreaker," "Livin' Lovin' Maid," "Ramble On," "Moby Dick," "Bring It On Home."

Funny thing about this album. When I first got into Led Zeppelin, I downloaded "Stairway" and "Whole Lotta Love." And then I bought their greatest hits for some reason, which had "What Is And What Should Never Be." And I heard "Heartbreaker" and "Ramble On" on Q104.3 constantly. So when I bought this album, those were the songs I knew, ergo those were the songs I listened to. Horrible habit, I know. It takes forever to get through some albums. Anyway, long story short, I had this album for over a year before I ever got around to listening to the last track, "Bring It On Home," which is basically fantastic. This album, on the other hand, not only has a great stylistic mix, but great pacing as well. You go heavy rock, then softer with a huge chorus, some straight blues-rock, then more acoustic, LOTR-esque, next are two huge rockers, then more LOTR, followed by "Moby" fucking "Dick,"followed by BIOH. It's not a constant throttle, but you never lose interest.

Still, it is not as good as Houses of the Holy or Physical Graffiti. It's not as... refreshing.

Between these two, I'll tell you right out that Physical Graffiti wins. A lot of it is size, with 15 tracks compared with Houses' eight. But it's also that PG actually takes you to a place (be it inside Swan Song studios in the early 1970s or in the Taj Mahal). Houses of the Holy is a trip, to be sure, and PG has nothing that trumps "The Ocean," but there's a "something for everyone" quality to PG -- with styles ranging from the blistering crunch of "Custard Pie" to the progressive wallop of "In My Time of Dying" to the stoner surf jam gone awry in "Down By the Seaside" -- that cannot be overstated. HOTH is more fun, Physical Graffiti is just a tour de force. You listen to it and can't believe that someone actually created it.

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On a totally unrelated note, "Oh Yoko" is a totally awesome song: