PHYSICAL GRAFFITI

After the versatile 'Houses of the Holy' and with overflowing popularity translated into extensive tours and packed stages around the world, Led Zeppelin, exhausted, took a break and only two years later released 'Physical Graffiti' (1975), their sixth album and the most extensive of their discography, mixing songs developed for the occasion with pieces discarded in previous years.

And it is in this context that the Englishmen sustain their unmistakable hard rock imprint with the undeniable blues influences in songs like the erotic 'Custer Pie' and its incisive guitar riffs, or the extensive 'In my Time of Dying' with Page using a 'bottleneck' to achieve that dense and slippery sound seconded by John Bonham's boxed percussion and Robert Plant's very successful singing, but above all with the hypnotizing and mysterious 'Kashmir' and its orientalized orchestrated melody, one of the best of the album.

The band also reaffirms their folksy leanings with Page's beautiful acoustic arpeggios on the instrumental 'Bron-Yr-Aur' (original from 1970) or the fractured 'Black Country Woman' (dropped from Houses of the Holy) with Plant and excellent harmonica playing, and they retain that laudable exploratory spirit with the progressive chords of John Paul Jones' hypnotic synthesizer and Page's bowing effect on the intriguing 'In the Light', the funky chords of 'Trampled Under Foot', Jones' electric piano on the melodic 'Down by the Seaside' and the refreshing 'Boogie with Stu' with the bluesy piano of esteemed sessionist Ian Stewart (both tracks recovered from 1971), before closing with the glam airs of 'Sick Again', a mention of Led Zeppelin's innumerable groupies.

Despite the enormous wear and tear caused by the self-demanding nature of the band on their way to the top, which left some after-effects in terms of the intensity of the proposal, 'Physical Graffiti' is a very good work and surely the last great album by Page and company.

3.5/4 stars

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