Led Zeppelin Album: “Early Days & Latter Days: Vols. 1 & 2”

Well I was actually glad that each individual cd got 3.5 star rating overall. Why- because I loved this set so much that I knew there albums are even better (as most people didn't like it because each Led Zeppelin album is its own thing). This is the first thing I bought of Led Zeppelin and right after I listened to the first disc I went right to the mall and bought the $120 COMPLETE STUDIO RECORDINGS set only like a day after I got this. That means beware people with no Led Zeppelin albums for if you buy this you'll want all there albums. You'll hear great guitar, vocals, drums, bass throughout the whole cd. You will be satisfied with this in all ways.

DISC 1-Early Days

1.Good Times Bad Times-(2:48)-10/10

2.Babe I'm gonna Leave You-(6:41)-10/10

3.Dazed and Confused-(6:27)-10/10

4.Communication Breakdown-(2:29)-10/10

5.Whole Lotta Love-(5:34)-10/10

6.What is and What Should Never Be-(4:44)-9/10

7.Immigrant Song-(2:25)-10/10

8.Since I've Been Loving You-(7:24)-9/10

9.Black Dog-(4:54)-10/10

10.Rock and Roll-(3:41)-10/10

11.The Battle of Evermore-(5:52)-9/10

12.When the Levee Breaks-(7:08)-10/10

13.Stairway to Heaven-(8:02)-10/10

DISC 2-Latter Days

1.The Song Remains the Same-(5:28)-10/10

2.No Quarter-(6:59)-10/10

3.Houses of the Holy-(4:01)-10/10

4.Trampled Underfoot-(5:35)-9/10

5.Kashmir-(8:31)-10/10

6.Ten Years Gone-(6:31)-9/10

7.Achilles Last Stand-(10:22)-10/10

8.Nobody's Fault But Mine-(6:27)-8/10

9.All My Love-(5:53)-10/10

10.In the Evening-(6:49)10/10

I recommend this to anyone who wants to get a great starter Led Zeppelin cd.

"Led Zeppelin" has numerous classic albums, and a few boxsets out, but this is actually the closest thing they have to a "Greatest Hits". Them being one of the best rock n' roll bands in history, means this is obviously the tip of the iceberg, but it's still a good introduction. Many of their best songs are included, like "Whole Lotta Love", "Immigrant Song", "Kashmir", and the infamous "Stairway To Heaven". Plus other favorites like "Dazed And Confused", "Black Dog", and "All My Love". So if you're looking for a 2-disc "Best Of", this is about it. It'll go great with your "Black Sabbath" and "Who" collections.

I would recommend the two-disc version of the remasters, since the song choice on this collection is pretty deficient. My other complaint is the short length of the CDs. Finally, virtually ALL of Led Zeppelin's music has stood the test of time, and so there is no reason to separate eras (for example, "D'yer Mak'er" from 1973 sounds very good alongside "Fool in the Rain" from 1979). Using all available 80 minutes, the following would be MY recommendation for best two-cd collection of the best of Led Zeppelin:

Disc One:

Disc Two:

This would be the most memorable three to five songs from every record (counting "Hey Hey What Can I Do" is a b-side from Led Zep III) except 'Presence', the band's undisputed low point - and the songs in this running order sound quite coherent.

In these days of ipods, everyone can program their own 2 hour Best of Led Zeppelin greatest hits collection, and probably very few would exactly match the songs Jimmy Page selected to be on here. The box set has 54 songs, all great, making the task of a more casual 2 CD greatest hits collection that much harder - no matter what, some great songs will be left off. So unless your song selections match these pretty closely, you might be on the fence about buying it. Just acknowledge any collection will not be what you would have done, and enjoy 23 great songs for a pretty cheap $14.99. I am especially impressed with the song selection on Latter Days. It is, to my mind, an almost perfect run of long, soaring, cinematic songs of unequalled power. Kashmir and Achilles Last Stand are as good as it gets. I also give Page credit for not ending it yet again with All My Love, a song I like but any LZ collection needs to end with a song with hammer of the gods mystical power, so In The Evening is much better. I use and abuse these in my walkman, keeping the box set safe at home.

I see a number of reviewers urging people to just get all the Zep albums on CD. There's nothing wrong with that. If you think you might like every note they ever recorded and you've got plenty of moola, then by all means, go for it! Hey, I was at that point back in my younger days. First, I collected all their albums on vinyl (many of them second hand, and already pretty worn). Then in the late '80s I caught the digital bug, and replaced them with the first run of CDs. In fact, my very first CD purchase when I bought my first player was LZ II. After awhile, though, I started realizing that the sound of these early CDs was rather hit and miss. Zep IV (Zoso) was, in my opinion, the worst offender with a somewhat muddy sound and a lower volume than the rest. When the 90's remasters came out, I liked what I heard, and carried out another full upgrade.

As I've gotten older, I'm finding that my tastes are changing slightly, and although I still enjoy listening to Zep on any given day, I've noticed that I tend to skip over certain songs when I listen to a full album. I've become rather picky in my "old age" (just for the record, I'm in my 40s). I've been purging quite a few CDs from my collection over the past few years, but every so often, I want to hear some Zep, but just mainly the highlights.

Some time ago, I purchased Mothership because the track lineup really appealed to me, and my local music shop had a hellova deal on it. I was blown away by the sound, but not in a good way. See, there's this trend with the music biz lately called the "loudness wars" (I'm not going to go into the details here; You can Google it or look it up on Wikipaedia), and sadly Mothership is a textbook example of that "maxed compression and volume" mastering. It just doesn't sound good to me.

So I was glad to find this set still available with a similar track lineup and the same exact mastering as the '90s remasters. Zep I is well represented here, with its four best songs, but unfortunately there are only two Zep II tracks, which is one reason I only give this set 4 stars. That's fine though, since I decided to hold on to my Zep II. There are no skip-worthy songs on that particular album anyway.

I was never a huge fan of Zep III, so there is no love lost over the fact that there are only two Zep III songs. Zep IV is well represented, although to be super-nitpicky, I would have put Misty Mountain Hop in place of The Battle of Evermore.

Disc two has a mere two songs from Houses of the Holy, another reason for not giving this a perfect rating. I've held on to my full "HotH" CD, so I'm still good there. The rest of Disc two flows well for me, as it does a fine job with the highlight songs from the mid to late '70s albums. It works well for me.

Bottom line: I highly recommend this set for anyone who is either just getting their first taste of Zep (you won't be disappointed), or anyone who, like me, is not in love with every song on every album they put out. And it sounds great to my ears.