Acclaimed Albums – Led Zeppelin II & IV

List item: Listen to the 250 greatest albums
Progress: 85/250

Title: Led Zeppelin II Artist: Led Zeppelin Year: 1969 Position: #74	Title: Led Zeppelin IV Artist: Led Zeppelin Year: 1971 Position: #28

So my Kindle died on me this morning, currently on volume 3 of Clarissa for the book list, so I figured that I would try and get some albums in. Since, as of writing, the 2015 update of the Acclaimed Albums list was not out I figure that I might as well mine some of the safer entries for listens.

A while has passed since I listened Led Zeppelin. Part of me thought that I would come back to it in the year afterwards, but it just didn’t happen. My distaste for too many guitar solos on one record probably kept me away.

Still, I have been thinking about a return to the later albums, if only for the iconic ‘Stairway to Heaven’. It’s one of those songs that everyone heard, if not heard of. I still find it amazing that it was able to gain so much traction despite not being released as a single. Where I am musically, I can pretty much take or leave it to be honest. In fact, whilst I definitely see how Led Zeppelin IV is better than their first album it was Led Zeppelin II that I enjoyed a whole lot more.

Maybe it was because the opening track, ‘Whole Lotta Love’, made me think of those Friday nights as a boy watching Top of the Pops. I certainly don’t think it is because of a love of that kind of hard rock music, because that is not true, there is just something about the album that was far more attention-grabbing and could then keep hold of it. It even provided a good backdrop for some of the more tedious office work.

So yes, it appears that with Led Zeppelin II  I have found an album by led Zeppelin that I enjoy. Led Zeppelin IV? Not as much.