Physical Graffiti
| Led Zeppelin
Physical Graffiti
Physical Graffiti is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released as a double album on 24 February 1975 by the group's new record label, Swan Song Records. The band wrote and recorded eight new songs for the album in early 1974 at Headley Grange, a country house in Hampshire, which gave them ample time to improvise arrangements and experiment with recording. The total playing time covered three sides of an LP, so they decided to expand it into a double by including previously unreleased tracks from the sessions for the earlier albums Led Zeppelin III, Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy. The album covered a range of styles including hard rock, progressive rock, rock 'n' roll and folk. The album was then mixed over summer 1974 and planned for an end-of year release. It was delayed because of the sleeve, which was designed by Peter Corriston and featured a theme around a tenement block in Manhattan, New York. -WIKIPEDIA
Critic Reviews
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RollingStone
3/27/1975 - Physical Graffiti is a tour de force.
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The Guardian
2/19/2015 - (Reissue Review) The remastering sounds fine, but it’s not revelatory.
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BBC
2007 - A towering monument to the glory of Zeppelin in their high-flying heyday.
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ALL MUSIC
the majority of the tracks on Physical Graffiti are individual stylistic workouts.
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CoS
2/19/2015 - (Reissue Review) the whole point of Physical Graffiti being a double album — so there’s no worthy studio material left in the vaults outside alternate takes and rough mixes that serve no practical purpose for the common listener.
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Classic Rock Review
10/29/2015 - Physical Graffiti is the best for two reasons. First is simple math, as it is their sole double studio album, hence twice the normal rock n roll bliss. More importantly is the sheer diversity of this album, which combines newly composed material with outtakes from the group’s three previous studio albums and in the process captures an incredible array of styles, production and compositional methods.
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popMATTERS
2/26/2015 - represents the most grandiose expression of these Brits at the height of their powers.
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Uncut
2/25/2015 - (Reissue Review) The enticement of this reissue is a batch of previously unheard early versions of seven of the fifteen tracks which comprise the epic sprawl of Physical Graffiti.
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Irish Times
2/18/2015 - The album remains, then, a testament to rock’s golden age, and there are moments on it that still sound like Thor’s mighty hammer whistling a merry tune.
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paste
2/25/2015 - (Reissue Review) No amount of reissue padding will ever tarnish the mesmerizing mess of Physical Graffiti. It’s funny--only now, 40 years later, has the true filler finally emerged.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Review
You look up "wretched excess" in the dictionary, and there's a picture of this double album. The songs go on, and on, and on... "
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APHORISTIC ALBUM REVIEWS
If Physical Graffiti was trimmed down to a single album it would probably be Led Zeppelin’s best.
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Only Solitare
A double album of cock rock and flatfoot heavy metal? I'll pass, thank you.
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Smaulgld
An event when it was released, PG had so much to offer. It set aside the old Zeppelin which showed signs of wearing on Houses of the Holy and embraced new musical territory.
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Daily Mail
2/20/2015 - Zep’s sixth still lives up to its billing as one of the best double albums of all time.
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Live for Live Music
3/3/2015 - ( Reissue Review) We are reminded, once again, as to why these Led Zeppelin records are so incredibly important to music.
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ppcorn
Physical Graffiti was Zeppelin’s most ambitious record to date. The double album covered a lot of ground as the group experimented with new sounds.
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Record Collector
This prodigious double-album was an inventive mix of heavy blues, soul, folk, psych, acoustic and their trademark bludgeoning rock.
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A New Domain
Physical Graffiti is a recording of every facet of the band’s music made at the time when the members were at the peak of their powers.
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Keno's Classic Rock n Roll Website
The last of the great albums put out by Led Zeppelin, and this double album, like the ones before it, was heavy hitting - but with some different, new sounds mixed in to some of the songs to boot.
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THIS DAY IN MUSIC
On its first day of release in the US, the album shipped a million copies – no other album in the history of Atlantic records had generated so many sales.
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Puluche
2/22/2015 - This new flair proved to be permanent, as many of the new album’s songs seem to be ventures into their own styles, whether it be blues or Mid-Eastern influences, and this musical melting pot continued to display their unsurpassable talents.
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LOUDER
1/23/2015 - Why is this possibly the greatest double album ever made? Why indeed. There’s a feral mystery to it even today, that still defies description, nevertheless we like the impossible.
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INDEPENDENT
2/20/2015 - Most double albums are bloated affairs that would have benefited from being ruthlessly trimmed back, but it’s hard to imagine Led Zeppelin’s 1975 magnum opus any leaner than the 82-minute juggernaut that remains a totemic release in rock history.
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Shepherd Express
3/24/2015 - (Reissue Review) The reissue includes an additional CD of rough takes and alternate mixes, none of them revelatory but interesting for fans as an example of Zeppelin’s creative process.
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Vintage Rock
(Reissue Review) — exemplifying the foursome's diverse grasp of blues, folk, World, boogie woogie and hard rock in one full swoop. Four decades after its release Physical Graffiti still sounds fresh, convoluted and blooming with a unique sound and inspiration that made Led Zeppelin one of the biggest and baddest bands of the 20th century.
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Peek-a-Boo Music Magazine
3/16/2015 - A double album that traversed many genres - blues, rock, roots, folk, metal, world-music, and that's just for starters - Robert Plant's charges' sixth studio album is arguably their pinnacle, their peak, their high rock worthy of its PG-rating.
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Adrian Denning
'Physical Graffiti' does absolutely everything, shows absolutely everything - that Led Zeppelin ever were. By the way, the album title comes partly from the effort the group took in piecing this album together.
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