“Carouselambra”
Read the lyrics as you must—another Led Zeppelin song about a woman, or another Led Zeppelin song about touring, or another Led Zeppelin song about how much ass Led Zeppelin kicks, or another Led Zeppelin song about how much Led Zeppelin just kicks so much ass especially while on tour WO-MAN!—but its excellence and its unique position as the last great song on the band’s arguably-so-so-but-still-last-true album only serve to prop up the great big What If this track would come to represent to those invested enough to have bothered spending much time with it in the first place.
Yes, they could dial back their production while simultaneously expanding their sound.
Yes, they could sound modern without ending up dated.
Yes, they could explore and adventure at the same time.
Yes, they could still rock even if they were getting a little to tired to roll.
In a vacuum, it’s a very good ten-minute rock jam threading that fine needle between cheesy and earnest, between laughable and admirable, Jones’ magnificent keyboard lines and even more magnificent bass lines picking up whatever weight and slack Page’s guitar was too exhausted to lift and Bonham’s drumming too over it to carry. In a vacuum, they had opened a door; in a vacuum, they proved a band could progress without copping to any clichés of overt progressive rock; in a vacuum, there was a way forward.
But that’s just it: nothing ever really exists in a vacuum. Not even Led Zeppelin.
Grade: A-


