IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR

I bought this album upon release in 1979 and loved it - but 30 years on my opinion has changed somewhat - it's a very average album and the worst Zeppelin studio album - the band had obviously ran out of ideas by this point and resorted to boogie-woogie ( South Bound Saurez) and a misguided attempt at rockabilly ( Hot Dog) - I cringe when hearing Page's intro to Hot dog - a riff-master in the studio he may be but Albert Lee he aint !! side One is particularly poor apart from In The Evening which is superb - Fool in the rain has some great Bonzo drumming but would not have made the cut on other Zepp albums - Side 2 is a little better - I like Carouselambra - Bonzo is inspired again and Page finally comes to life - All My Love is syrupy for Zepp but has a nice middle section and a good JPJ solo - Im Gonna Crawl wounds things up - an average blues saved by a decent Page solo. Overall it a massive disapointment - Page was clearly not at his best here and has never really wrote a great riff since - the songs just are not good enough though Bonzo comes through the last album still shining - he is as good as ever on this one - JPJ also steps to the plate on this one and Plant is...Plant - so if you are new to Zeppelin then stay clear of this one until you have heard the other albums.