Ecstatic!

Raw yet lyrical. Mystical yet macho. Psychedelic but (you know) heavy metal. This is perhaps my favorite album by Led Zeppelin and it is the one where Page's fascination with the ancient and the occult most clearly shines through.

The Houses are Holy, holy indeed

This has to be my favorite Zeppelin recordings, not that every song is my favorite, but the fact they didn't try to make an album with another "Stairway". Almost every song on this album is awesome. The only song/songs i wouldn't give a full score of a 10/10 would be "The Crunge". It just isn't Zeppelin. But nonetheless, you have the one and only, "No Quarter". Seriously, if they (Zeppelin) released this as a single or if they(the idiot capitolist radio jocks)played the song on the radio, i'm sure it would be another "Stairway". Great song, great album

Up there with IV and II. One of the best albums.

Here's the review song by song.



The Song Remains the Same: This is an interesting song because you can see their getting expiremental with how they use their instruments. Not the best one, but it's good.



The Rain Song: Dude. Dude. Very good song. Very calm and optomistic because it's about spring, not about sadness as the name might imply.



Over the Hills and Far Away: This song was so good, I felt obliged to learn to play it and plan to play it live (in front of HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE). The beggining is calm but quickly turns into a fast and upbeat anthem. Plant does very well vocally.



The Crunge: Err... I respect it, but not MY personal favorite. Seems unnatural for some reason.



Dancing Days: This song is cool. More signs of experimental riffs and lyrics. Upbeat.



Dyer Maker: Haha, very cool. Signs of Zeppelin having a since of humor, or they were being VERY experimental. Reggae? They really make it work, though the thought of Led Zep playing reggae is questionable.



No Quarter: This song is mystical, slow, and probably the darkest song on the album. But thats not really saying much because it really is an upbeat album. Fairly long and about 7 and a half minutes. Just cool.



The Ocean: This song most resembles their older guitar driven days. It's very cool, but not "bad ass" like some people like. It's modest. I actually like the fact that it's not all "bad ass". There's also a hidden joke in this song. At 4:20 in the song Plant says "oohhhhhh soooo goood." Oh those Zeppelin boys... (shakes head)



All in all it's just another brick in the wall. What? No. It's a good album, buy it or listen to it. Yeah.

No name on the cover but the songs remain the same

With this 1973 album Led Zeppelin continues to cause trouble by offering an album cover by Hipgnosis with naked blonde children climbing a bunch of rocks without any reference to the title or even the name of the band. The group figured everybody would know about "Houses of the Holy" and insisted on finding new ways of tweaking their noses at the music business beyond producing songs that were way too long for AM Top 40 airplay. There were those of us who were just happy that there was an official name to Led Zep's fifth album after the previous one was known variously as "Led Zeppelin IV," "Runes" and "ZOSO." "House of the Holy" is very similar to that album in that once again there are no length blues tracks as you would find on their first three albums, although we do have John Paul Jones playing with his synthesizer on "No Quarter," which became his signature song. What we do have are more examples of Led Zep's version of rock 'n' roll where the bass lines and Bonzo's drumming come up big with "The Ocean" and "Dancing Days," as well as the folk influence on the acoustic beginning to "Over the Hills and Far Away." We even have one of the better examples of Led Zep being cute with "D'yer Mak'er" ("Me wife is going on vacation." "Jamica?" "No, she's going of her own free will...") and the group's first attempt to try to duplicate the success of "Stairway to Heaven" with the lush synthetic strings of "The Rain Song." Actually, I think the opening track, "The Song Remains the Same" is a better effort along those lines, covering much more ground both musically and vocally. You always get the feeling that Jimmy Page is always looking for the perfect song to not only start off an album but to open a concert, which probably makes it ironic that the song they apparently used most often was "Rock and Roll," the second track from their fourth album. Overall, "Houses of the Holy" is probably the best of the second level Led Zeppelin albums