PHYSICAL GRAFFITI

Well should this album be considered as an album proper? Certainly if you consider that Tull's Living In The Past is one also. But let's face it, this is more a compilation of unreleased material (a slight difference with LITP) from throughout their career plus a few tracks specially written for the album. I am not even sure the new tracks were enough timing to make a single disc. Which does confirm the feeling that Zep was suffering a burnout and were buying time (after such a gruesome but fabulous five-years adventure) and trying to pick up the pieces.

This "compilation" unfortunately has never sat well with me even when it was released (I was 12 and had already discovered them the year before) nevermind looking at the album retrospectively as I do in this review. I always thought of this collection as heavy, dark, directionless full of second-rate material with way too few tracks to highlight it. Out of those two long discs, only Kashmir (which I am a little sick of hearing) and In My Time Of Dying manage tp perk my enthusiasm. On top of it, for the future proghead I was about to become, only Kashmir held some interest (with maybe In The Light, but I am stretching it, here), the rest of the album being relatively unadventurous. Sadly, looking at the posthumous Coda album, had I been Page, there are a few tracks I would've swapped to make this double album more happy and jumpy.

As far as the fans are concerned, lots of them will point to this collection asone of their highlights. I find it terribly over-ratyed and full of tracks that did not managed to make the cut (such the HOTH and the Bron-Y-Aur) on the previous albums.