Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin's epochal fourth album finds both the band's blues-rock thunder and their gentler, more lyrical side filed down to a razor-sharp point. "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" aren't just perennial air-guitar anthems; they're the ultimate distillation of the blues-inflected, hard-rock fury the band had already been perfecting for the past three years. Robert Plant's Little Richard-on-amphetamines wail rides perfectly atop the band's strategically directed crunch for maximum impact. "When the Levee Breaks"is a titanic take on the blues, with John Bonham's thunderous drums echoing through the subsequent decades. The folkier, acoustic tracks provide welcome moments of beauty and respite, and all the elements of the band's sound come together in "Stairway to Heaven", a suite of shifting dynamics that would become the Eiffel Tower of classic-rock radio forevermore.

NME (10/2/93, p.29)
- Ranked #56 in NME's list of the 'Greatest Albums Of All Time.'

Q (6/00, p.76)
- Ranked #26 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums"

Rolling Stone (12/23/71, p.63)
- "...out of the eight cuts, there isn't one that steps on another's toes, [or] that tries to do too much all at once..." -Lenny Kaye

Q (10/94, p.141)
- 5 Stars - Indispensable - "...it's...big room ambience still best described by 'When The Levee Breaks'..."

Classic Rock (04/06, p.74)
- "Quite simply, it is the greatest British rock album of all time."