Released: 1994
Tracks: Nobody’s Fault But Mine; Thank You; No Quarter; Friends; Yallah; City Don’t Cry; Since I’ve Been Loving You; The Battle of Evermore; Wonderful One; That’s the Way; Gallows Pole; Four Sticks; Kashmir
Best tracks: Battle of Evermore & Kashmir
Track to skip: Nobody’s Fault But Mine is the weakest one on here, but I usually listen to it
This album marked the return of half of one of the greatest rock bands of all time. The return was pretty short lived as it turned out, but it was welcome none the less. I think the only times that Page & Plant had played some Zeppelin tunes together since Bonham’s death in 1980 were at Live Aid and Knebworth. There was first the obligatory MTV special and then this album followed by the tour. I think with a lot of us, the MTV thing really perked our interest in this. I really love how Page & Plant decided to take the world music route, as opposed to the hard rock route like Page did with
David Coverdale. All the musicians (Western and Egyptian) are exceptional with the exception being Robert Plant himself. Even with Jimmy Page’s chronic sloppiness, he still managed to sound quite good throughout this whole album. The problem in it being ‘great’, as opposed to just ‘pretty good’, is Plant’s voice. He is absolutely not the same vocalist he used to be, in the 70’s OR 80’s. His voice just sounds really off, especially on Since I’ve Been Loving You. All the musicians sound fantastic on this song, and the addition of the orchestra is excellent, but Plant can not pull off that kind of singing anymore.
I’m glad that Page & Plant wrote some new material for this album, so that it’s not just a rehash of Zep songs. Of the three new ones (Yallah, City Don’t Cry & Wonderful One) Wonderful One is clearly the best. It’s the most complete song and a very nice little ballad thing. Yallah and City Don’t Cry are just decent; they’re probably my least faves of the whole bunch. Well, Nobody’s Fault isn’t too hot either. I prefer the original version to this super-slowed down version. Maybe they were trying to make it sound like the original original version, the old blues song that they ripped it off from. It’s just not that great though. The songs that are great, however, are most of the rest of them. The versions of That’s the Way, Since I’ve Been Loving You (musically), Thank You and Four Sticks are all great. The disc’s highlights are absolutely Battle of Evermore and the kitchen sink version of Kashmir. Battle of Evermore features Najma Akhtar on female vocals and she’s fantastic. I love how they rearranged this tune from Celtic to Middle Eastern. It really brings out so many new aspects to it. Even Plant sounds decent enough on this, and besides, Akhtar’s voice more than compensates for Plant’s. Kashmir is the other highlight with the orchestras sounding especially kick ass and the extension of the tune itself. I have to give a massive amount of kudos to Ed Shearmur, the organist for the group, but primarily the person responsible for all the orchestral (Egyptian & English) arrangements. As I was listening, I wondered if it was Page & Plant that did the arranging, but I was pleasantly surprised that they gave Shearmur the full credit he deserves. His work on here really defines this album. Overall, Plant’s weak vocals do bring this down a lot. The music is nearly all fantastic on here, but Plant’s such a huge presence that he contributes to it being not as good as it could be. Musically this thing is great though.
Rating: 84
Write a comment