Alex TB 2008-11-22

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Houses of The Holy is just...one of those albums. One of those albums that everyone seems to like and I just cannot figure out why. It is pretty much split between good and startlingly bad, and for a Led Zeppelin album this is about as bad as it gets in the early career. But with that said, the album still has a nice selection of good songs. The Song Remains the Same is an interesting ethnic epic that does it's job pretty well, but Robert Plant falters here, like he does on most of the album. The Rain Song and Over the Hills and Far Away are two of Led Zep's absolute best acoustic moments and are priceless treasures that haven't aged a bit unlike their predecessor. The Crunge is usually cited as being the albums worst track, but in actuality, it is pretty awesome although perhaps unessential. The next two songs are downright horrible. Dancing Days was an already tired riff that amounts to even less when Robert Plant takes the stage with the least melodic vocals of his career, a complete embarrassment. D'yer Mak'er is a sad attempt at Reggae, and it's so bad that John Bonham refused to play it live he hated it so much. The last two tracks are alright though, No Quarter is a nice outing into the avant-garde written by John Paul Jones, and The Ocean is the necessary riff rocker to keep the album on it's feet considering the mediocrity that came before it. I'm a huge Led Zeppelin fan, but even I'll admit that this album feels like a missed opportunity and a mixed collection of b-sides. Casual listeners should be encouraged not to give up here, because the band did come back with great success on their next album, but this is one of the weaker in the discography.

Jonathan Mettin 2008-10-10

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One would be hard-pressed to argue that Led Zeppelin ever released a "bad" album. "Houses of the Holy" continues in that trend with a rock-solid track list that includes hits like "Over the Hills and Far Away" but also some of the lesser-heard songs like "D'yer Mak'er" that aren't as famous but are no less listenable. This CD is a good pickup for the casual fan, as it has some of the big hits not found on their first greatest hits album "Early Days."

N. Peters 2008-09-05

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There is no doubt that Houses of the Holy lacked the impact of Led Zeppelin IV; there is also no doubt that Zeppelin fans loved this album as they loved all of the band's work. In short, Houses of the Holy is neither the band's best nor worst album, but fans will find all of these songs to be essential to a complete understanding of Led Zeppelin.

However, there is a certain flatness about the studio versions of many of the songs on "Houses of the Holy" when one compares them to available live versions. For example, both "The Song Remains the Same" and "The Rain Song" are much more bombastic and powerful on the "The Song Remains the Same" live album than they are here. The same can be said for the brilliant extended version of "No Quarter" on "The Song Remains the Same" in comparison to the one here. The version of "Over the Hills" on "How The West Was Won" rocks much harder than this one. Finally, "The Crunge" sounds much better played live as a change of pace as part of the extended "Dazed and Confused" on HTWWW than it does here, with Jones's showy and utterly superfluous synth part and Plant's silly lyrics appended.

That leaves "Dancing Days", "D'yer Mak'er", and "The Ocean" to recommend "Houses of the Holy" as a studio album. These are each brilliant songs, with "Dancing Days" among the most affecting and enduring in the Zep catalogue (I love the synth part on the last verse in the "Houses of the Holy" version), "D'yer Mak'er" a hard-rocking reggae track which was foolishly dismissed by critics at the time for not being "authentic" but which in retrospect showed reggae's crossover potential, and "The Ocean" featuring one of the most distinctive guitar riffs in rock history.

J. Warren Benton 2008-09-02

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OK this is more like 1 of the greatest hits cd's but it was compiled at once. I absolutely love this album. Most of the tunes you will know if your a zepp fan at all. But if you were already a zepp fan you wouldn't be reading this review because you would already own this cd.

Coaster Shamen 2008-08-08

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I find this Zep album to be a slight detour from the previous four albums.
Oh don't worry about it straying too far from the main theam of Led Zepplin. It dose keep close to the path although songs like Dyer Maker and The Crung may have you scratching your head. Why Robert Plant decided to write a ragae love soug,I just can't for the life of me figure out where his brain want. The album makes up for it's mushiness in songs like The Ocean(definaly a good sign of things to come in future albums) Probibly my most favorite song on the album aside from The Song Remains the Same is Dancing Days. This little gem has a pecular quality about it that can somehow get into your dreams despite it's weak theam. Generally I find Houses of the Holley to be nice little rest stop between albums.