Led Zeppelin 1 (1969)

I've always been a big believer in judging an album by the cover. On a record, this is an especially prominent part. A full square foot of artwork to look at and admire as you place your head between the speakers and turn the volume up as high as it goes.
While not reading in too deep on the significance of the cover of Led Zeppelin, I believe there is some sort meaning. At first glance, it makes sense; the band is Led Zeppelin, so they put a picture of a zeppelin. Fairly straight-forward. BUT, the zeppelin is landing or coming in flaming. I like to think that since this is Led Zeppelin's first album, it brags that the group is coming in flaming. I see what they did there, do you?
The first song opens with a powerful blast of lead guitar. Sucks you in for what promises to be the next big thing in rock music, and it follows through on its promises. As the ground-breaker for a new group, it had a first impression to make, and what an impression! Between Robert Plant's soulful screeching and Jimmy Page's guitar magic (still not convinced he's not a wizard) it's one of my favorite songs on the album.
Look at me; I'm acting like the album came out yesterday. I wish. It's so much better than anything else on the radio nowadays. Give me a Zeppelin record on a turntable over a tablet with YouTube any day.
But back to the review, what I really like about it is that it's not just guitar solos layered with bizarre lyrics, as most late 60's albums were. This one has so much more depth than that, and I think most of it has to do with Jimmy's mastery of producing. Not all, though. Definitely not all. Every member of Led Zeppelin has more talent in one of their hairs than every 21st century pop artist combined. I mean, every song that wasn't a cover was written by them. Not by some outside party. Led Zeppelin is a member-only party. Only three songs on the album weren't written by them. With a combination of (according to Rolling Stone magazine) the best drummer of all time, the third best (behind Clapton and Hendrix) guitarist of all time, 15th best singer of all time and 6th best bass player of all time.
My favorite song on this album is probably "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You". Now, it isn't written by the members of the band, but Jimmy arranged it. The reason I like it so much is that it enraptures everything a Led Zeppelin song should be. It has both sides of the coin: the ballad and the hard rock. Not only that, but it does it so well. It gets tells the whole story of what Led Zeppelin would turn out to be within 7 minutes.
All in all, I say that this is an excellent album, and definitely deserves a space in everyone's record collection.
Snootchins,
~Kat