Disco de Led Zeppelin: “Led Zeppelin [Box]”

This set artfully explores the ingenious travels of hard rock's most influential and creative band, Led Zeppelin. Some of these songs are probably familiar from the radio, such as the crunchy "Black Dog" and "Whole Lotta Love" and the mystical epics "Stairway to Heaven" and "Kashmir." To get a full feel of the band's range, one needs to listen to the whole set, which ranges from bludgeoning heavy blues to delicate folk. The only possible drawback to buying this 4-CD set is that it's missing a few good tracks - but for that, there's always Box Set 2!

This is the perfect box set to start one's Zeppelin collection. If you've heard all the stuff on the radio and want that and a little more, buy this set. The sound quality is excellent, and the order of songs seems just as fitting as the original studio albums. There is incredible fluidity on this set (a quality that is far too often not achieved on most box sets), meaning you can listen to the whole thing straight through, getting a listen of the gradual developing sound of Led Zeppelin in the 70's without the awkwardness of a sudden change in sound from song to song. If you like this set, buy the 2nd box set (containing some lesser-known gems) and your collection is complete. Enjoy!

For a while this was all we had, box-set wise, from Zeppelin. This 4 CD set (and an accompanying 2 disc set released later) was the ultimate Zeppelin collection. Since there were no greatest hits and no more comprehensive collections available, it was this or nothing for those of us who wanted a heavy dose of Zeppelin on CD.

Today we have more options. For mild fans of Led Zeppelin I'd recommend, instead of this product, the Early and Latter Days 2 CD set. It's not as comprehensive and focuses more on the blowout superhits. For those who, like me, are utter Zep heads, the 10 disc Complete Studio Recordings works better. But this box set is still the best idea for people who really like Led Zeppelin but not enough to want everything the band ever released. With 4 CDs you get a lot of material (the selection was done by Jimmy Page, and he did a great job) but not everything the band ever released. This set rocks, and again the only reason I'd defer from buying this set is if I wanted something more comprehensive.

This set will give you all of the very best, including such rock staples as "Stairway to Heaven," "Whole Lotta Love," and "Rock and Roll," as well as such must haves as "The Ocean," "All of My Love," and my personal favorite of Zeppelin's lesser classics, "Ramble On." On top of that you get a whole lotta major and minor hits and a lot of filler material that's actually worth listening to--something you don't see much these days.

To sum it all up, this is a spectacular collection from one of the most phenomenal bands of all time.

Let me make clear at the outset that this review is NOT intended to be critical of Led Zeppelin as a musical group, and hopefully avoid some terrible comments and negative feedback. I like Led Zeppelin. I have every song they ever recorded. Wonderful band. Unfortunately, no matter how great of a band they are, that can't save this boxed set from being truly awful.

Honestly, I can't begin to understand the inspiration behind this collection. It's four discs of music containing almost - but not quite - everything the band ever recorded, including some off-album tracks that can be harder to get. Certainly, this set collects the majority of the desirable Led Zeppelin tracks, but unfortunately, it also collects a large amount of other detritus that will only be of interest to the dedicated fan and will most likely be skipped over by the casual listener. I don't know what the audience of this boxed set is supposed to be, but the odds are you aren't it.

Aside from being a somewhat scrambled set, this box carefully avoids collecting all of the tracks from even one of Led Zeppelin's original studio albums, no doubt in a ploy to force listeners to purchase another CD or 10. The completist will be dissatisfied with the fact that there are gaping holes in this collection, while the casual fan or an individual just looking for radio hits, in addition to finding a couple of notables missing, will find much, much more material here than he could ever want. For a short while, the Led Zeppelin Boxed Set Volume 2 2-CD set served to complete the box and turn it into a complete collection of studio recordings, but that box has long since gone out of production, forcing anybody who finds that they like the majority of the music on these 4 discs to either lay out for the 10-CD boxed set or buy the CDs individually, and in both cases utterly invalidates their purchase of this set.

I can't recommend this set to anybody. Led Zeppelin is a terrific band - II, IV, Houses of the Holy, and still more are all classic rock recordings - but this boxed set has an audience of exactly nobody. For dedicated fans, I recommend that you go out and get the 10-CD complete recording set, and for casual fans, I would recommend one of the many other 1 and 2 CD greatest hits compilations, or just going straight to the original recordings to get a taste of what the group is all about. This box, however, will ultimately satisfy nobody.

This is THE box set to own. Practically every song on the jam-packed four CDs rings with classic, blues-inspired rock. There are no duds. You can listen to this for months, you can crank it as loud as your stereo can go. I actually bought this box set -- my first CDs ever -- BEFORE my first CD player, I was so excited when it came out. The four black discs are still the prizes of my significantly larger collection. There is a reason why Led Zeppelin has sold approximately 70 million albums, many long after they dissolved.

This box set also has a way-out cool cover and accompanying booklet. Definitely choose this over the 10-CD set, too. If you want all of the songs, you can add Box Set 2 (which includes some wonderful songs that didn't make Jimmy Page's cut for this set, as well as their few, well, duds). That way you get the same songs, but on six CDs instead of 10.

To anyone who likes Led Zeppelin or Rock and Roll, this is frankly a treasure trove. A perfect gift also for a young kid with a guitar and a dream -- this is a compilation that shows what Rock and Roll was all about, before Pop killed it.

For anyone depressed about the NSYNC's of the world with their simplistic, recycled lyrics and lame dance-synth-pop sound, this box set is the antidote.

(Also check out Almost Famous, a movie with a lot of Zeppelin homages).