And after getting back to bare bones on Presence, Zepp slathers that skeleton up like Mexican dead people Christmas. Nothing sums up the problem quite like All My Love - rehashing the most well-trod lyrical theme, tempo, basic riff and structure, but with fake strings and synth solos and just generally a bunch of bullshit that doesn't belong here. And are you *sure* Fool in the Rain isn't a Billy Joel song? The whole thing's a mess, swinging for Elvis, The Who, The Stones and Yes without sounding much like Led goddamn Zeppelin.
And yet, I have to almost admire that reckless experimentalism - and when they really go for the prog on Carouselambra it's actually kind of brilliant.
Here's a test I go back to sometimes: what if this was the first and only album by some unknown band? Would it be a cult classic? It's helped redeem the likes of Adore and Vitology and I think it works here: this is a weird pile of everything, and if it wasn't for its aggressive Not-Zeppelinism clouding our judgment, I think we could learn to like it a lot better, to love it as a smart, dumb hot mess 3.5/5
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