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Led Zeppelin II (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Led Zeppelin II
  • Group name: Led Zeppelin
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned this record
  • Buy it on Amazon: $23.93

Led Zeppelin II

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I reviewed Led Zeppelin’s first record a few days ago and mentioned then that I thought I might have listened to it around 500 times. Same with this one, but I like it even more.

What I expected

Rock, blues rock, hard rock.

What it was actually like

If this isn’t the perfect hard rock record, it can only be because “perfection” is elusive and a bit nonsensical – but there’s nothing about it that I would change! It’s a great record to put on when reading, working, cooking, or watching rugby! My favorite song on it today was Heartbreaker, followed by Bring It On Home, but I love every song on it.

Grade

5/5: love it

Led Zeppelin (I) by Led Zeppelin (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Led Zeppelin (I)
  • Group name: Led Zeppelin
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on left of album, indicating that my father owned this record
  • Buy it on Amazon: $24.14

Led Zeppelin (I)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

This is one of the few records from my parents’ collection that I used to play in the basement of their house when I was in high school, on the same Yamaha turntable and with the same Advent loudspeakers that I’m using to listen to it right now. Then in college, I bought this Led Zeppelin box set and I’ve been a fan ever since. I’ve probably listened to this record around 500 times.

What I expected

Rock, blues rock, hard rock.

What it was actually like

From the opening bars of Good Times Bad Times, I was reminded of an amazing discovery that I made as a teenager, which is that any part of Led Zeppelin’s first three records lines up perfectly with any rugby game (given that the rugby’s sound is turned off). Though I had only primitive tools available in the 1990s – the “international channel” on cable occasionally showed some extremely grainy rugby – you can validate this concept for yourself today using youtube.

At any rate, I consider this to be one of the greatest hard rock records ever recorded, one of the greatest blues rock records, one of the greatest 1960s records, and one of the greatest debut records by a rock band. Every part of it is wonderful and it’s amazing that Robert Plant was so young and his voice already so distinctive. If I had to pick a favorite song from it, I think I’d go with Dazed and Confused or Babe I’m Gonna Leave You. I wouldn’t be able to pick a least favorite, though.

Grade

5/5: love it

Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Are You Experienced
  • Group name: the Jimi Hendrix Experience
  • Year: 1967
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Reprise Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “GESSNER” written inside the album sleeve and on the record, indicating that my father owned this record
  • Buy it on Amazon: $22.49

Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

My parents didn’t play Hendrix while I was growing up, but I first downloaded this on Napster, and have listened to it hundreds of times in the past couple of decades.

What I expected

Psychedelic rock.

What it was actually like

Though “Are You Experienced” was Hendrix’s first record, when I first listened to it, I thought it was a greatest hits collection, because every song on it is such a great hit, and I think that is why some consider it to be the greatest record ever made.

With not a single note of a single song that I dislike, I can’t come up with anything negative to write about it.

About his performance at Woodstock, however, I recently wrote that “Hendrix was greatest when he was playing actual songs, and weakest when he was inventing brilliant new ways to create cacophonous noise with his guitar,” and “Are You Experienced” is exactly what I meant.

I wish this record included All Along the Watchtower.

Grade

5/5: love it

Who’s Next by The Who (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Who’s Next
  • Group name: The Who
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Decca Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it:

Who's next by The Who

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve been a fan of the Who since college, and this is one of the few records from my parents’ collection to which I listened more than once in the basement of their house around that time.

What I expected

A couple of iconic songs, a couple of pretty good songs, and some filler.

What it was actually like

The opening of “Who’s Next” is a classic moment of classic rock, permanently seared into the memory of generations of young men – and probably some women, too, though I haven’t known many female fans of the Who. It was in that moment that the group who invented the highly idiosyncratic “Maximum R&B” in the early 1960s, and then helped to invent hard rock and the antecedents to heavy metal in the late 1960s, proceeded to give the world the precursor of techno music in the early 1970s. And if only the rest of techno music had sounded anything like Baba O’Riley, popular music in 2022 might be a lot better than it actually is. Alas.

I’ve always wondered whether I like Won’t Get Fooled Again or Baba O’Riley better, and I like them both a great deal; the other hit on this record is Behind Blue Eyes, and I used to be a big fan of it too, but I’ve never been able to hear it the same way after seeing Pete Townshend claim in an interview in the early 2000s that its lyrics were a reference to fascism.

Bargain, Going Mobile and Getting in Tune are all also quite good songs, and on a weaker record, they might have been a lot more prominent.

The filler: Love Ain’t For Keeping, My Wife, Song is Over.

Grade

5/5: love it

Abraxas by Santana (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

Abraxas by Santana (Vinyl record album review)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never been a big Santana fan, presumably because had a song called Smooth that was not very good, and that was played around a million times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I may have listened to this record once.

What I expected

Guitar riffs and psychedelic rock.

What it was actually like

It was jazzier in parts than I expected, and more of a hard rock record, though I’m not sure it’s entirely fair to distinguish “hard rock” from “psychedelic rock,” as it was plenty psychedelic too. Lots of parts were very enchanting, and I enjoyed listening to all of it, particularly Black Magic Woman, though Incident at Neshabur did get a bit boring at times.

Grade

4/5: would listen again