Presence

| Led Zeppelin

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Presence

Presence is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released by Swan Song Records on 31 March 1976. While the album was a commercial success, reaching the top of both the British and American album charts, and achieving a triple-platinum certification in the United States, it received mixed reviews from critics and was the lowest-selling studio album by the band while they were still active. The album was written and recorded during a difficult time in the band's history, as singer Robert Plant was recuperating from serious injuries he had sustained earlier that year in a car accident. This led to tours being cancelled and the band booking studio time to record Presence instead. The entire album was completed in a few weeks, with guitarist and producer Jimmy Page putting in several long shifts to complete recording and mixing. The album is dominated by Page and Plant compositions, with only one track credited to the entire group, and unlike other Zeppelin albums features no keyboards and little acoustic guitar. Because Plant was still recuperating, the band could not tour to capitalise on the album's release and only two tracks, including ten-minute opener "Achilles Last Stand", were performed live. However, the album has been re-appraised in retrospective reviews for its hard rock dynamics and simplicity compared to the group's other work. - WIKIPEDIA

Critic Reviews

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  • Louder Classic Rock

    4/3/2018- sales soon tailed off, just as they had for Led Zeppelin III and Houses Of The Holy, initial excitement failing to translate into wider general interest among non-partisan record buyers as what was – correctly – perceived as the album’s generally depressing ambience became known.  

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  • RollingStone

    5/20/1976- Presence is another monster in what by now is a continuing tradition of battles won by this band of survivors. 

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  • Wilson & Alroy's Record Review

    Uninspired, and their worst effort overall; but it's still passable, inoffensive Zeppelin product - every song is a riff-fest.  

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  • Adrian Denning

    still remains a minor Zeppelin work, simply because there is so little else here that's particularly impressive or memorable.  

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  • Smaugld

    An album that I’ve tried hard to listen to in one sitting since the time of its release in ’76. It seems to start out fine but my interest wanes always by the time I hit “Candy Store Rock”.  

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  • ALL MUSIC

    Presence winds up as something less than the sum of its parts but its imbalance also means that it's a record worth revisiting; it seems different upon each revisit and is always compelling.  

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  • Classic Rock Review

    11/24/2011- the least successful album in the Zeppelin catalog commercially and one with very mixed reviews critically. However, Presence is the album that the band themselves consider to be their “most important” 

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  • sputnik music

    12/13/2013- Presence marks the downhill slide: years of excess had rotted the glorious Zeppelin and brought it slowly plummeting to Earth in a ball of flame.  

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  • Escapist Magazine

    6/12/2014- I mainly like it because of the personal aspect: since the songs were written mainly by Page and Plant, it's not a stretch to say that Robert Plant's accident turned the lyrical content into an observation of the group's influence on music, and on the sick shit that goes one when you're a rock star.  

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  • Amino

    5/21/2018- Overall, I like this record. I don’t think it’s as good as previous records, but it’s still a nice listen 

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  • Something Else!

    8/17/2010-“Presence” was a memorable outburst of creativity from a band about to implode, an album that once again lovingly incorporated their earliest, and most powerful, influences. It was, in the band’s penultimate moments, a true triumph. 

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  • Rock n Reviews

    1/26/2016-This album is underestimated, listen to it again. Led Zeppelin is immortal, it still hovers over our heads. Forever. 

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  • AUDIOECLECTICA

    2/21/2017- Presence is an album that strips it down to the root of drums, bass, guitars and vocals. 

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  • Aphoristic Album Reviews

    Presence is more interesting as a showcase for the band’s virtuosity than it is for their compositions.  

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  • Mark Prindle

    recorded while Jimmy was a major-league heroin addict and Robert had just lost a child, which might explain why most of it sounds so rushed - I can't imagine that writing new songs was too high on their priority list at the time. Nevertheless, hurried as it seems (and tinny as it sounds), the songs are still really good rockers.  

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  • iconfetch

    8/11/2015- Containing no hits, Presence is probably Led Zeppelin’s least-appreciated record. 

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