Day 35: Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel. We're seriously considering moving to Norway now, there are a lot of jobs and such to get there and it would probably do us a lot of good to have some change in scenery. It feels like things are getting harder rather than easier as the time goes by and I think we need to start looking forward to the future more than anything.

We're staying with Led Zeppelin here on their fifth effort, the first one with an actual title. I think Led Zeppelins work after IV is often ignored for some reason when I feel the quality of music is essentially the same throughout their career. Houses of the Holy bring Led Zeppelin in yet another direction after IV. There is a bit of experimentation here and just a generally different sound from their earlier work. It's still unmistakably Led Zeppelin, it's just different.

I think the fact that Led Zeppelin have had very subtle changes in sound throughout their career was incredibly beneficial to their success. They weren't belting out the same songs over and over again rather showing certain transitions that make their back catalogue very varied and continually interesting to listen to. With Led Zeppelin listening to all their albums back to back doesn't give off a feeling that you're listening to the same thing over and over again and it's really nice.

With Led Zeppelin you know every single song is going to be notable in some way. It is even true for the album we'll be listening to tomorrow where over half of the songs are new material interspersed with older cuts that didn't make it onto previous albums due to time constraints. Jimmy Page has a very interesting acoustic guitar style that is present on Black Mountain Side, White Summer and it can also be hinted at with Over the Hills and Far Away. It's always interesting to see him use this live especially on all his different versions of White Summer/Black Mountain Side recordings that are available as bootlegs or on official releases.

I love Led Zeppelins funky number the Crunge it's so different to everything they've done before and since, the same can be said with D'yer Mak'er a reggae inspired number where the title itself is a play on Jamaica. Despite the mix of styles present on this album it flows really well and they don't make anything seem out of place. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why but it's one of the reasons Led Zeppelin are so great is that all of their songs are instantly recognisable as Led Zeppelin songs.

I love the usage of Theremin in No Quarter, the whole song itself is incredibly reminiscent of Progressive Rock on the whole which adds yet a whole new dimension to the album and Led Zeppelin itself. In a way I wanted to comment on how far Led Zeppelin have come from their debut album but it feels like that doesn't do enough credit to their earlier albums, it's merely meant as a comment on their stylistic changes over time.

I hope you've enjoyed Houses of the Holy my angel. I love you and I miss you so much. Not a second goes by where I didn't wish you were here. Goodnight my sweet Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.