Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin II
(Atlantic)

The 17-song Led Zeppelin II album features the spectacular, remastered second album for the band. Lest we forget, this album reads like a greatest hits collection, with songs like “Whole Lotta Love,” “What Is and What Should Never Be,” “Thank You,” “Heartbreaker,” the light-and-then-heavy “Ramble On” (a song truly showcasing what this band could do given the breadth of only one song). On “Ramble On” alone, this remaster puts Bonhams’s hand-pat congas so upfront and Page’s weird rhythm so clear, it really is as if we are hearing the song for the first time.

Here, as with Led Zeppelin, Page has included some nice extras beyond just remastering the original album. Plant’s voice on the “Whole Lotta Love” rough mix might be even more expressive then on the original and though the middle section is lacking in the sound collage we are used to, it’s still all wiggly noise and wacky. “What Is and What Should Never Be” is rather complete; we get to really hear John Paul Jones’ expressive bass playing here though. There’s a sans Jimmy and Robert “backing track” from the ballad “Thank You,” a rough mix of “Heartbreaker” (it seems a tad bit slower to me) and a neat “La La” that ends the album, a boppy instrumental oddly out of place on an album I always viewed as quite a bit darker.

As you will find if you search enough, there are a whole bunch of ways (ranging in price) that you can get this stuff, full lovely package to just the CD’s.