Led Zeppelin Album: “The Complete Studio Recordings [Box]”

At college, a bunch of my CDs were stolen, including every Led Zeppelin CD I owned. My insurance replaced them within a week. I didn't own every Zeppelin album on CD, and I owned two of the pre-remastered editions. When I replaced them, I got this set to compensated for my stolen Zep. I could not be more pleased with the results of this box set. There are three great things about it that will be discussed here.

THE MUSIC: Every true rock fan knows the greatness of Led Zeppelin. Every song and album is a gem, and is essential to any music collection. Everyone has heard songs such as "Whole Lotta Love," "Stairway to Heaven," "The Song Remains the Same," and "Kashmir," to name a few. There are also many not so well known great tracks here, including "Achilles Last Stand," "In My Time of Dying," "All My Love," "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp," and "Black Mountain Side," to name a few. Plus, with the album Coda, you get bonus tracks unavailable anywhere else unless you buy the other two box sets, including the non-LP B-side "Hey Hey What Can I Do," the outtake "Baby Come On Home," and the excellent songs recorded for the BBC "Travelling Riverside Blues" and "White Summer/Black Mountain Side." Once you buy one Zeppelin album, you will want to buy more, and more, and more (just ask anyone), so you may as well get it all and more now instead of buying all the albums separately and wishing you had just bought all of them this way and also gotten the great bonus tracks. Plus, though not in the short run but definitely in the long run, it is cheaper to buy all the albums this way than to buy them separately, and this way, you get more for less.

THE SOUND: Having heard two of the albums before Jimmy Page himself took control and remastered them, I know from personal experience that the new sound shows a difference between night and day. Before, they sounded like a lot of old, unremastered CDs do, dull, not enough volume, and need improvement. Here every single track from start to finish sounds so fresh, almost as if it were recorded quite recently. It shows that Jimmy Page really cares about the fans, as there are many under 21 who are discovering or will discover Led Zeppelin, and fans from the time upgrading their music collection to CD, and the sound should be as sharp and "current sounding" as possible. And here, Jimmy Page not only satisfied himself, but also satisfied CD buyers everywhere with the incredible sounds coming off of these 10 discs.

THE PACKAGING: The way this box set is packaged is excellent. What exactly is on the cover of the box, I do not know, but it is cool. The lid of the box set fold up and can be pushed in so you can access the CDs right from your shelf without having to take the box off the shelf and disassemble it, which is quite convenient. Inside there are five hardcover books, each housing 2 CDs. In order for the packaging to work, the Presence album is coupled with Houses of the Holy in order to give the double Physical Graffiti its own book. But that doesn't matter, you can listen to the CDs in any order you want. Each of the books contain graphics of the original vinyl packaging, such as the six different covers (front and back) from In Through the Out Door, the turning wheel from III, all the inner sleeves, everything is here. There is also a very entertaining booklet, filled with a biography and plenty of pictures.

If you like Led Zeppelin at all, this is the way to go. All the studio albums with graphics of the original vinyl and as originally sequenced. Please take my advice, if you like Led Zeppelin, invest your money and buy this set. If you have any hesitations at all, it is very likely that you have friends that like Led Zeppelin. Listen to their copies of the ablums and find out for yourself. Even if you have to make sure that the investment is worth it, you will not be disappointed in the end. This is sure to provide you enjoyment for a long time to come.

5/5

Owning this collection is a much better idea than owning the other 2 box set collection for one simple reason: every Zeppelin album had a certain atmosphere and mood which is totally lost if you just string together random Zeppelin hits. How can you compare the acoustic sound and feel of Zeppelin III with a raucous and wild album like Presence? The band strived for unity and cohesion in their albums and sometimes refused to release any singles until much later than the album's release. To break up their hits into a best of collection seems like a crime.

That's why this collection is so great -- all the original art work is preserved along with liner notes, an extra booklet is included with a complete retrospective/overview, the CD's are all remastered from the originals (and boy does that make a difference) and you have all 10 studio albums plus some bonus tracks like Hey Hey which were only released as B sides. There's really no way you could go wrong with this set unless you own all 10 albums. I owned maybe 4 of them, but I'm still glad I have the whole set now. It's very high quality too with nice cases, artwork, and extras. A first class release all the way and a must for Zeppelin collectors.

Ordinarily only a fanatical groupie would shell out $120 for a band's complete studio recordings, but Led Zeppelin has put out enough good music to make the purchase of this box set reasonable for even a normal person. I bought it a few years ago, when I was in high school (a week's earnings for 10 Zeppelin CDs when my entire CD collection at that time was less than ten CDs), and I have never regretted it--because, as it turns out, Led Zep never made a bad album.

I will say, however, that the cases they come in are very annoying. It is hard to get the CDs out of the cardboard slips without scratching the CDs or getting finger smudges on them. The result is that the albums I've played the most--Led II, Led IV--now skip on some CD players.

But there are advantages over buying the CDs individually: not only is the box set slightly cheaper (less than $12 per CD), but the liner notes are really good, and the bonus tracks are great ("Hey Hey What Can I Do" is one of my 3 favorite Led Zep songs, and is not on any album--only box sets and the "Immigrant Song" single). Also, the music sounds great; I don't know if the individual albums have also been remastered, but the remastering Page did on this box set was very good.

Overall, this is an excellent investment for connoisseurs of Rock. But if you do get it, take all the CDs out of the sleeves they come in and keep them in a CD carrying case, which will protect them better. Sorry this was so long and thanks for reading.

A must have for all Led Zeppelin fans! I discovered Led Zeppelin some years after the surviving members of the band had called it quits as a result of the untimely death of drummer John Bonham. All I had ever heard up to that point of the Led Zeppelin legacy was that they are considered to be the granddaddies of Heavy Metal and although this a genre of music that I do enjoy from time to time, I was less then interested in hearing how its "forefathers" had sounded in their heydays. This was until one day I heard one of the most innovative rock songs ever, the song was "Over the Hills and Far Away" and to my astonishment I heard the DJ say that the band was Led Zeppelin. I was amazed and was hooked immediately to the hypnotic sound of Page's guitar, the raunchiness of Plant's raw voice and the hardest playing make-your-ears-bleed rhythm section ever with Bonham on drums and Jones on bass. I wanted all their records and I wanted them NOW but slowly collecting the CD's was beginning to be a pain, Thank God for this box set which is absolutely the best Led Zeppelin box set available. It has all their studio recordings plus Coda that was released after the band called it quits. The box set is beautifully packaged, each CD comes inside its own little hardcover booklet which contains pictures of the original artwork used on the LP's (including all the different artwork used in the multiple releasing of "In through the Outdoor" which was originally released in a brown paper bag so you never knew which art cover was on it, sneaky) plus you get an extra booklet which contains a bio, a discography and beautiful pictures of the band and it all comes in a beautiful little box which you can proudly display.

A note on the whole Led Zeppelin/Heavy Metal thing: Yes they played hard but they also played soft. They wrote ballads (i.e. "Thank You", "The Rain Song") as good as any of their heavier songs, they even delved into reggae ("D'yer Mak'er") they were innovative; they were trendsetters (look at all the bands that have attempted to recapture the old Zeppelin magic). There is no way one can label a band that embraced so many different styles of music, always found ways of reinventing themselves and captured such a wide ranging audience that expands through decades and will continue to do so.

The albums speak for themselves. But what really makes this one of the best box sets on the market is the sound quality. Superbly remastered under the supervision of Jimmy Page himself.

The packaging and box design are first rate also. Very high quality. I have had my box for years now and it still looks brand new. For those of us who purchased the original vinyl (in the year they were originally released!) this set is nothing short of a sonic epiphany. What this set brings out is the little nuances and subtleties in the sound & production you never really heard before.

Page & Plant were always in the forefront and this set propels them even further. Personally, what I realized (for the second time around) is the expert musicianship & "teamwork" of John Paul Jones & the late, greatest John Bonham. This is not mp3, iPod, earbud music....this is 200 watt, 12" Cerwin-Vega Woofer rock!

Any Zeppelin fan owes themself this box set. Hey, you can't take the $$$$$ with you! Even if you own some of the individual cds already, trade them in ASAP & upgrade to the Mount Olympus (or should I say Misty Mountain Top) of rock n' roll!! I guarantee you'll be happy you did!