Album Review: IV by Led Zeppelin

Photo from Amazon

Words by: Anna Julia

Technical details
Year: 1971
Genre: Hard rock, metal
Length: 42:25 minutes
Country: United States

My opinion about Led Zeppelin until the last five days or so was not an exciting one, to speak true. I liked them, yeah, and I thought they were a really great and talented band, but in fact my opinion was based in the few songs I had heard from them, which were the ones my fellows in the band I’m in had showed me (that is to say, Stairway to Heaven, Rock and Roll and Heartbreaker). I always wanted to know a bit more about them, but as it always happens to me with bands and music, I never found the time to listen to them in deep. So I always wished for more time to hear their music, or for something that, somehow, “forced me” to hear it. And this occasion happened the 29th of March, when I went with a friend to a vintage flea market in Barcelona, my city. I found a Led Zep album with a pair of songs I knew in it for 5 euros, which is about eight dollars or less. So I didn’t doubt: this was my opportunity. I took the album home and put it in the player. And I was greatly surprised! Now, don’t misinterpret me, I already knew they were great, as I said, but what I heard was more than what I had expected, because they were not only a hard-rock-headbanging-guys type of band. They had even traces of folk music in some of their songs! This made me curious, and now I have become, although not what could be called as a fan, really fond of their music.

This untitled fourth album by Led Zeppelin is their most well-known record of all, and has been a best-selling album since it came out, which is or was, back in their times, a success, given the bitter reviews their previous album reaped. The band decided to do a radical change in their selling strategy, and so they didn’t write their name in the cover, nor gave the album a title, as we have seen, and instead they placed in the sleeve four symbols which represented every one of their members. (They’re cool symbols, by the way; I especially like John Paul Jones’ one, the one which seems a circle over three interlocking ovals. Very celtic-like!). This was to ensure that what was selling was purely their music, and not the name or the hype they had caused. And I like the idea so much! The most strong songs in the album, Black Dog and Rock and Roll, were chosen as the two A-Sides for the singles on it, and now they’re of their most successful hits.

What suprised me more of this album (and one of the things I think I like best of Led Zeppelin now) was the ease with which they switch from their most badass attitude to the ballad-like songs in the album. It all has kind of an integrity sensation, a feeling of completeness throughout the whole album which is really interesting. Everything completes really well the other songs and the atmosphere in the record, I don’t know if you know what I mean. Now I read this last paragraph and hell, I realized I’m not sure of having expressed clearly what I wanted to say, but I can only hope it catches your attention for you to be able to experiment and see what I mean firsthand.

The untitled album by Led Zeppelin, or IV (Four), has not been a big, great discovery, but only because I already knew a bit I had to expect something great, because apart from that, it has been an interesting door to knowing this band more thoroughly. Besides my personal experience, I have also to say that if you want to know Led Zeppelin’s music for the first time, this is your album to go. It has their most famous song in it, Stairway to Heaven, and ranges from their most rock songs to the ones with a bit of folk touches, as I said, so there may be something for everybody. My favorite songs, even though I like a lot their usual hits -as Black Dog or Stairway to Heaven-, are Rock and Roll, Going to California, and one of those less known, When the Levee Breaks, which is, by the way, an amazing rock song.

Tracklist
1.- Black Dog (4:54)
2.- Rock and Roll (3:40)
3.- The Battle of Evermore (5:51)
4.- Stairway to Heaven (8:02)
5.- Misty Mountain Hop (4:38)
6.- Four Sticks (4:44)
7.- Going to California (3:31)
8.- When the Levee Breaks (7:07)

Singles:
-Black Dog / Misty Mountain Hop
-Rock and Roll / Four Sticks