Review Summary: Despite being a solid, rocking successor to the group's debut, this record already shows signs of weakness from the band.
"More originals, more drive, more excitement!". This is the general consensus of the second studio release by the Zepsters; a sequel surpassing the original in every possible way, a tour de force of songwriting, hard rock bombast, cockiness and, thanks mainly to
that riff everyone will be humming while reading these lines, a precursor to heavy metal. That’s all fine and cool by me and hey, everyone’s entitled to their opinion anyway, but hear me out first.
First of all, let’s talk about the "original" aspect. Everyone that thinks this is a far more original, on a songwriting level, offering than the debut is fooling himself. Off the top of my head:
Whole Lotta Love is lyrically and melodically ripped-off from a Willie Dixon tune called
You Need Love,
Bring It On Home's first part is a cover from…Willie Dixon’s
Bring It On Home To Me,
The Lemon Song’s fast section is taken from Howlin’ Wolf’s
Killin’ Floor and of course, both
Whole Lotta Love’s and
Moby Dick’s guitar riffs are suspiciously similar (but are not stolen) to Hendrix’s
Hey Joe and Bobby Parker’s
Watch Your Step riffs, respectively. To be fair, though, most of the rip-offs were later acknowledged in credits by the band; my point is that this is more or less a semi-original effort by the band songwriting-wise.
As for the "drive" part, here you are: While
II may sound harder and heavier than the debut on a first listen, this isn’t quite the case; the "heavy" numbers on their first release were more ferocious and uncompromising by a long mile. Few of the songs here match the threat and menace of a gem like
Dazed And Confused or
How Many More Times; these were simply more gripping and edgier than most material on here, whether one adores or despises blues-influenced music. Only
Whole Lotta Love showcases some of the darkness of the debut, while the rest of the record is rooted more on hard rock than early metal. It's not a disadvantage, but too many people mistake this release as the heavier one while this is not the case.
The only improvement I can see in the album is the over-abundance of riffs here; truly, this is actually the most riff-heavy album in the Zeppelin catalogue and for good reason; the riffs allow the group to move on a harder rocking territory, as opposed to the debut’s blues leanings. Whether they are brash and heavy on the album opener, bluesy on
The Lemon Song or baggy and groovier on
Heartbreaker, Jimmy works wonders with these catchy phrases on his guitar. Sometimes, even the bass works up some incredibly memorable and nifty lines, as on
What Is And What Should Never Be; speaking of which, isn’t it a
terrific tune to begin with? A compelling fusion of jazz, hard rock and pop that should not be missed. Jimmy’s dynamics are also prominent here; loud and sharp on the choruses, light and restrained on the verses and a bit of both on his awe-inspiring slide solo. Fantastic!
Whole Lotta Love is such a famous classic that I won’t even bother talking about it; suffice to say, if you haven’t heard this one, your rock knowledge is really incomplete.
The Lemon Song is the album’s
You Shook Me; not as earth-shaking as that one, but incredibly
groovy on the other hand. From the opening riff to the middle part, where Jones lays down every bass trick he knows while Jimmy with Robert engage in a terrific ‘call and response’ routine, this is as fantastic as blues jams can get. Even more impressive, from a songwriting standpoint, is
Ramble On; Robert sings a sweet melody before leading the way for the explosive chorus, Jimmy mixes impressively acoustics with electrics, not to mention an astonishing "harmonized" solo figure in the middle of the song. Jones’ playing is as inspired as on
What Is and Bonham treats the verses with African percussion. Impressive!
Living Loving Maid is the brother of
Communication Breakdown in the sense that it is a pop-meets-hard rock experiment, but quite often feels watered-down. It lacks the trademark Zeppelin fire and the group mistakenly emphasizes the pop side rather than the hard one, the former of which they never truly mastered. Another let down is also
Thank You; where has
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You gone? This is arguably a low point in Zep-ballads, where even the admittedly good melody can’t save the tune from its overly sentimental and ‘adolescent’ nature. This is a band that would, in the following years, pen mature gems like
Going To California and
That’s The Way. Here, the emotional effect is mostly suitable for teenagers during their first crush; useful for that age and mindset and hey, I’ve been through that phase too, but it wears thin after some time, don’t you think?
The closing
Bring It On Home isn’t a valuable addition, either; it pales in comparison to the debut’s closing number, which kicks it by the window any time of the week, but it has a well-written riff, as well as interesting harp lines from Robert…and that’s about it. Live, it worked much, much better as a medley; everyone should check it out. The honor for the worst cut, though, must fall on
Moby Dick. Now, don’t get me wrong; John Bonham is tied for my favorite drummer together with Keith Moon, but this
is not the essence of his playing. He became famous for being an inventive, dynamic and instinctive drummer, not a soloing beast. Not to mention that, the only people who need drum solos on an album are, guess what, drummers. The rest should, logically, press the forward button as soon as possible.
To cut the story short, this a solid and in places improved follow-up to the group’s first album. Unfortunately, it has a solid percentage of filler and, quite frankly, I’m not going to forgive this flaw just because
Whole Lotta Love and
Heartbreaker are/were radio standards. The debut had a zero amount of bad songs and a much more threatening vibe that truly
is the essence of early Led Zeppelin. And while it opens much more impressively, it finishes rather poorly compared to
I. In any way, it is Zeppelin at their prime without a doubt and one of the best they did throughout their short, but impressive career.
