PRESENCE

Presence ? 1976 (3/5) 10 ? Best Song: Achilles Last Stand I may be the only human being alive to ever rate Presence higher than Physical Graffiti (even if it Is just one damn point). For one, it's half the duration, and, to me, that counts. Oddly enough, the biggest influence to this album is Rush. Don't believe me? Check the vocals this time around. Plant sounds so much like Geddy Lee it's not even funny (high pitched and nerdy). Isn't it fitting? I'd still take Led Zeppelin over Rush any day of the year, and it doesn't mean much any more than I just find it interesting. 'Achilles' Last Stand' is a rousing epic rocker, which has a nice thumping riff, but aside from the astral solos, it doesn't get too high off the ground in all its extended nature. Presence comes off as a work in progress more than anything else, and it is first album in their career that isn't heaped and heaped with massive doses of unrequited praise and adoration. I don't see why, though. What makes this so different from half of Physical Graffiti, or Houses of the Holy for that matter? Nothing but a set of pseudo-original riffs and highly formulaic thump-pound dingus jamming. They're having fun, which isn't a change, even if it was recorded at a tumultuous time in the history of the band, so says Wikipedia (and what do they know?) 'New Orleans' is New rubbish. I don't like it. The riff's got little substance, and once again I'm sitting through a song just to hear the competent, but simple solo (that ain't even there, hardly). Though if you ignore most of the songs, 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' comes off as being really exciting in its little way. Most everything else is filler.