HOUSES OF THE HOLY

"Houses Of The Holy" is the fifth studio album of Led Zeppelin that was released in 1973. It follows the same basic pattern as "Led Zeppelin IV". The album's title is a dedication by the group to their fans who appeared at venues called "Houses Of The Holy". It was the first Led Zeppelin's album to be officially titled with a real name. It was also the first band's albums to be composed completely by original material. It represents a musical turning point for Led Zeppelin, as they began to use more layering and production techniques in recording their songs. During the promotional tour of the album, two live shows were filmed giving the live album and the film "The Song Remains The Same". This was also Led Zeppelin's final studio album which was released on Atlantic Records before the band forming their own record label, Swan Song, in 1974. "Houses Of The Holy" was ranked 148th on Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 500 Albums List.

The art cover for "Houses Of The Holy" was inspired by the Arthur C. Clarke's novel "Childhood's End". It's a collage of several photographs which were taken at the Giant's Causeway, in the Northern Ireland. The inner sleeve photograph was taken at the Dunluce Castle near to Causeway. The art cover of the album was considered as one of the greatest albums' covers of all time, and it was also nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best albums package ever.

"Houses Of The Holy" has eight tracks. The first track "The Song Remains The Same" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is a very powerful rock song and a great opener for the album, and soon became one of the trademarks of the band. All band's members are brilliant making of this song one of the highlights of the album. Originally, it was an instrumental track which was given the title "The Overture". The second track "The Rain Song" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is a lengthy ballad were the melody of the song was originally constructed by Jimmy Page at his home and where Robert Plant composed the lyrics and John Paul Jones added the Mellotron, which is giving the final orchestral effect. So, the final result is a fantastic song with beautiful guitar work and a majestic Mellotron sound. The third track "Over The Hills And Far Way" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page was one of the songs chosen to be released as a single. This is another great song on the album, this time with a fantastic acoustic guitar performance by Page. It's a very interesting song that mixes perfectly the beautiful acoustic ballad style with the hard rock style. The fourth track "The Crunge" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham is a funky song that seems to be a tribute to James Brown. Sincerely, I never particularly liked of this song, and even today, I still don't like it very much. So, this is, in my opinion, one of the two weakest songs on the album. The fifth track "Dancing Days" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page was the song chosen to be released as the B side of their single "Over The Hills And Far Way". It's probably the most commercial song on the album, and despite being a good song, definitely better than "The Crunge", it's, in my opinion, inferior to the other three previous songs. The sixth track "D'yer Mak'er" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham is the other weak song on the album. It's also a song chosen to be released as the A side of a single, with "The Crunge" as the B side. It's clearly a song influenced by reggae. It isn't a bad song but it's, in my opinion, completely out of the musical context of the all album. The seventh track "No Quarter" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones soon became to be considered one of the best songs made by the group and also became a centre piece of all Led Zeppelin's live concerts. It's the epic song on the album and it can also be compared to "Stairway To Heaven". It's undoubtedly one of their most progressive tracks and one of their most beautiful songs too. The eighth track "The Ocean" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham is a very good song. It refers to the sea of fans seen from the stage at Led Zeppelin's concerts, to which the song is dedicated. It's an excellent rocker with a great riff, a nice way to close this great album,

Conclusion: I know "Houses Of The Holy" since the 70's. It's with "Led Zeppelin II", one of the first two albums I heard from the band. In those times, I wasn't a big Led Zeppelin's fan and due to that I decided to sold "Led Zeppelin II" to a great friend of mine. So, "Houses Of The Holy" became my oldest album from the band in my vinyl collection. "Houses Of The Holy" always was one of my favourite albums from Led Zeppelin. It marked a change into their music, to a more elaborated and sophisticated sound, because the use of keyboards, especially Mellotron and synthesisers. It has also four of my favourite songs from them, "The Song Remains The Same", "The Rain Song", "Over The Hills And Far Way" and especially "No Quarter", which is probably their most progressive song. "The Ocean" is also a great song. However, "Houses Of The Holy" has its Achilles' heel. "The Crunge" and "D'yer Mak'er" are two weak songs. So, "Houses Of The Holy" has some inconsistencies. So, and unfortunately, for me, I can't rate it with more than 4 stars.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Share this LED ZEPPELIN review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to VianaProghead
• Report this review (#2923071)
• Buy LED ZEPPELIN music online with PA partners
• Show all LED ZEPPELIN MP3/Stream
• Go to LED ZEPPELIN page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Houses Of The Holy page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for LED ZEPPELIN related discussions