Melody Maker - Unknown Pleasures - # 19 Led Zeppelin - Presence

Led Zeppelin once stalked the earth and left records to prove it. Frankly the world has never seen their like before or since. Their sheer scale and power are unrivalled by any other band ... ever. This can make them somewhat tiring to listen to  because they're so often intent on proving it. So on a good day at the office this can sound like the best thing you've ever heard. On a bad day it's somewhat akin to being bludgeoned repeatedly with a blunt object albeit by three of the finest Rock and Roll musicians ever to play and a divisive but inimitable frontman.

Presence is generally considered a bad day at the office by critics, fans and members of the band themselves. 'The runt of the litter', as Matt Smith describes it here.There are definitely times on here when it sounds as if they're just running through their gears from muscle memory but often the gears lock and they find themselves stuck in a relentless groove and you wonder if there might be something wrong with your record player because surely no one wanted their songs to come out sounding like this. Powerful as ever they nevertheless sound dry and to my ears slightly sterile.

This album was the product of a period of intense difficulty in the band's career as Matt Smith's records in his informative, ego free account of the making of the record here. Robert Plant had just narrowly escaped death in a family driving accident while on holiday in Greece and the record to a large degree attests to his recovery process and evident acute irritation with the circumstances he is obliged to put up with, with those around him and the fact that recording Presence forces him to be apart to from his wife just when he needed to be with her most.

The frustration and boredom he was obliged to endure seem to seep into the grooves here. It's certainly not the Led Zep LP you would play to convince the uninitiated of their worth. It's a solid album but one devoid of the life and colour that defines the band's best work. And there's plenty of that. The record is bookended by two of the band's most powerful tracks, Achilles Last Stand and Tea For One but they're both almost ten minutes long. Frankly, it's all rather hard work and I won't be going back any time soon.