CODA

While "Coda" tends to be listed in Led Zeppelin discographies as the band's final studio album, the reality is that "In through the outdoor" was their true swansong. As the title suggests, "Coda" is a posthumous release, appearing about 2 years after the death of John Bonham, which brings together eight previously unreleased songs.

At a mere 33 minutes, it quickly becomes apparent that there is not a great quantity of such material available, and it does not take long to realise when listening to this album that there is some major barrel scraping going on.

The tracks are pretty much chronological, starting with "We're gonna groove" a blues standard recorded by the band in late 1969 or early 1970. "Poor Tom" is from the "Led Zeppelin III" sessions, the song reflecting the more acoustic nature of that album. "I can't quit you baby" is one of the few tracks here to have appeared on one of the band's albums, in this case their first. This version is a live rendition, although there seems to be some doubt as to whether it is a concert recording or a rehearsal. In any event, it is by far the strongest track here.

"Walter's walk" was originally intended for "Houses of the holy", and to be fair it is not actually any worse than a number of the songs which made it on to that album. In brief, it is a rather muddled upbeat rambler. Three songs, "Ozone Baby", "Darlene", and "Wearing and Tearing", were recorded for "In through the out door" but not used. The first of these, "Ozone baby" is a pop based up-tempo number with a catchy hook. "Darlene" features John Paul Jones on piano and some notable guitar work, but is otherwise uninteresting. "Bonzo's Montreaux" muscles in between this track and "Wearing and tearing". As the title suggests, "Bonzo's. . ." features the drumming of John Bonham the track being slightly enhanced through the addition of some effects by Jimmy Page. As drums solos go, this is one of the more acceptable ones, as it at least features a recognisable beat and some Caribbean style sounds.

We close with "Wearing and tearing", a fairly standard Led Zeppelin romp with a familiar drum pattern and a pop rock feel.

In all, an album only for the Led Zeppelin devotee; there are no hidden gems to be found here.

Some versions of the album on CD include a number of bonus tracks, all of which were included in the Led Zeppelin box sets. The most interesting of these is the wonderful "Hey hey what can I do", the B side of the single "Immigrant song".

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